Damaged souls
by Masamune3800
Summary: This story follows an OC, who is a normal soul in Rukongai at the beginning of the story. Throughout the story there will be several massive differences from canon and many minor differences. I am trying not to be too detailed with this summary because I don't want to spoil the plot.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Not much I want to say here just read the story and I will talk more at the end. I do just want to explain how I will label years. This is taking place roughly 450 years before Urahara became a captain, I am also going under an assumption that he became a captain around 100 years after enlisting in the Shinigami. So, that means the events of the canon bleach take place during the year 2000. Of course, that time may be different in this story, as this is an AU, at least slightly.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach.

Damaged Souls

Chapter 1: Introduction

* * *

**Day: **Tuesday, the 8th

**Month: **August

**Year: **1428

**Time: **8:06 AM

**Location: **36th district of north Rukongai

A black haired teen opened his eyes and found himself in his favorite place to relax, a small field with some grass and a rather large tree that blocked a reasonable portion of the sunlight. He loved to sleep here, the grass was soft and it was never too cold, even at night. It was completely surrounded by bushes so people rarely bothered him. He also kept all of his personal belongings here, there was no real need to hide them, people never came into the area and the belongings were not so important that the teen could not live without them. One might say it was his home.

He lay there for a few seconds, enjoying the comfort of the grass and the various smells that accompanied it, before standing up, getting his money, and heading into the nearby town. The town was not too far away, at most a kilometer, and he found that the fairly short walk was a good way to stretch and wake up in the morning.

The teen, after arriving in the town, started to make his way towards the center of town where he could buy a bit of water from one of the shops. He didn't have a constant job so he would usually just do some simple chores to get a bit of money. Overall his life was not terrible, but not amazing either. The teen couldn't complain about the state of his life, compared to people in the outer districts he was living an amazing life. The teen spent his free time at his home, reading books that he purchased with spare change that he saved up. This was one of the main benefits of living where he did, with a house came more expenses, because he had found a place where he could live and he didn't have to spend any money on it at all, unless you count the purchase of blankets and a pillow, this meant he had quite a bit more spending money than an average soul.

As he walked down the street he saw other people starting to wake up, there were a few familiar faces but he did not know any of their names. The teen did not have any real friends, not to say he was antisocial, he was perfectly capable of holding a conversation, he just never met any people who he could really call a friend.

He soon arrived in the center of the town; he made his way over to one of the shops and bought a bit of water for himself. After gulping down the water he asked the person who had sold him the water if he needed any help around his shop.

"Sure, I could use a bit of help moving some of the containers up from the basement." the shopkeeper paused "Although; I can't afford to pay you much."

"Don't worry about it, I just need something to do for a bit." said the teen, completely unfazed by the shopkeepers statement.

* * *

After the teen had finished moving the containers of water up from the basement the shopkeeper gave him a bit of change for the help. He went to leave the shop and head to his little home to put the money he had earned somewhere safe.

"Thank you for helping me out, I am getting a bit too old to be able to carry those containers up on my own; I would pay you more but money is a bit tight right now." the shopkeeper said as the teen walked out of the store.

"No problem, and seriously don't worry about the money, I understand. If you ever need any help don't hesitate to ask." the teen called back.

'What an interesting kid' thought the shopkeeper before returning to managing the shop.

As the teen headed back to his home an odd sensation came over him, a sort of itching that brought him out of his thoughts and back into the moment. A few seconds later he felt something cold press against the back of his neck.

"What do you want?" the teen asked, knowing someone was trying to mug him.

"What do you think I want? Give me your money." The thief growled before removing the knife from the back of his neck so as to give the teen room to reach into his pockets.

The teen just sighed before turning in place and focusing his dark blue eyes onto the thief.

"Hurry up and hand over the money or I will have to kill you." said the thief, who was clearly getting impatient.

"You are annoying me, I'm not in the mood to deal with this nonsense." muttered the teen before he turned and walked away.

"Hey, get back here!" the thief yelled. He just scratched the back of his head and yawned.

"Fine, I guess you want to die!" the thief shouted before charging at the teen. The teen sighed again and, without even looking behind him, ducked down, grabbed the thief's arm, and pulled him over his head.

"Did I not just say I was not in the mood for this nonsense?" questioned the teen as he removed the knife from his hand and tossed it quite a ways behind him.

The thief quickly got up and made a dash for his knife. As the thief picked the knife up he yelled out "I'm going to kill you, you bas- what?" the teen was nowhere to be found. 'Whatever, I will just find an easier target' the thief thought to himself before turning around and walking away.

In reality the teen had just bolted to the nearest alley as soon as the thief had turned his back, he had managed to get out of sight just as the thief picked up his knife again. While the teen was confident in his ability to fight off the thief he knew that people rarely made the same mistake twice and he did not feel like risking injury just so he could fight off the thief.

He was just stepping out of the alley when he noticed that the odd feeling he had gotten before the thief had attacked him had not gone away. He cautiously stuck his head out of the alley and looked down the street. There wasn't a single person there.

Just as the teen had decided to pass the feeling off as the adrenaline messing with his head he heard a voice behind him.

"That was awesome!" yelled out the voice.

The teen nearly had a stroke and quickly turned around to find the source of the voice. He nearly had yet another stroke when he saw a brown haired girl staring up at him from no more than a third of a meter away. She looked to be his age, maybe a bit younger.

He jumped back trying to figure out how this girl had managed to get so close without him noticing. The girl just continued to stare at him with her brown eyes.

"What the hell, when did you get there?" the teen managed to get out, after calming down a bit.

"Well I was standing there the entire time; I saw the scary looking man with the knife coming down the street so I decided to hide in here. Is he gone now? Did you scare him off?" the girl said, seeming to have no need to take a breath between words.

"Yeah he is gone, not sure about the whole 'scared him off' part though, more likely he just didn't want to try and find me." The teen answered.

"Ok, thanks." the girl said happily.

As the teen turned to walk away the girl yelled "Wait!" the teen turned his head to show he was listening.

"Would you happen to know where I can find some water around here? I'm sort of new and I don't know my way around yet." the girl asked, her voice gaining a bit of seriousness to it.

"Yeah, just head to the center of town and there should be a shop selling water" the teen explained. "Oh and here, catch." the teen tossed a few coins to her "This should be enough for some water, nothing is free here. And before you say something, just take it, you need it more than I do." the teen said as he turned to walk away.

"Thanks!" the girl yelled after him before dashing off towards the center of the town.

'Well, I think I have had enough adventure for the day already, and it isn't even noon.' thought the teen as he walked back to his home.

As he approached his home that same odd feeling came back. Shortly after that a person carrying a knife came bursting around a corner. The teen managed to get a look at his face; it was the same person who had tried to mug him back in town. The teen raised his arms to defend himself when the odd feeling intensified. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see a wooden club descend on his head.

* * *

The teen sat up and rubbed his head, he had no idea how long he was out but judging by where the sun was it must have been at least a few hours. The teen looked around and noticed that all of his money had been stolen; needless to say he was very mad.

Once he calmed down a bit he sat down and thought about what to do, he needed money to survive. This left him with two choices, either go earn some more money, or go after the people who had stolen it. The teen was more inclined to do the second but he realized that finding the thieves would be a serious gamble. Eventually the teen decided he would go earn a bit of money and then go looking for the thieves.

In order to find a job of some kind the teen headed back into the town, he knew a few shopkeepers would be willing to pay him if he did some simple chores.

He arrived back in the center of town and looked around, there were a total of eight shops set up in the area, he already had helped out the owner of one shop so that made seven options.

Out of the seven shops four had some tasks for him to do, the first asked him to sweep up a bit, the second had him arrange some books on shelves, the third had him assist in building a sign, and the fourth asked him to go and deliver a letter to someone.

He had already completed the first three tasks and he had made back around one fifth of the money that had been stolen from him. By now the sky had begun to darken and the teen was starting to feel the effects of a long day. Eager to get back to his home the teen headed off in the direction of the home he was supposed to deliver the letter to.

As the teen walked he put his mind into gear, since the thief had come back with a friend he was most likely a member of a gang of some sort. There were only two major gangs in the town so it would not be hard to find him. The issue was locating the gangs; nobody knew where they were based simply because there was no need. The gangs rarely did anything big; a robbery took place maybe once a month.

Because the gangs did so little to affect the town they were mostly ignored and were treated more like social clubs than anything else.

While it may have been good for the town that the gangs rarely did anything it made the teen's job that much harder. He would have next to no information to go by and even if he did find them he was not stupid enough to believe that he would stand a chance against a large group of opponents, dealing with two was bad enough.

The teen arrived at his destination and he knocked on the door. Shortly after an elderly man answered the door and thanked the teen for delivering the letter.

The teen started heading back to his home, by now it was nearly pitch black and the teen had decided to put off his search for the thieves to tomorrow.

Not even three minutes after he had delivered the letter the teen heard a high-pitched scream from nearby. Any exhaustion that he had felt driven off by the adrenaline, the teen ran off in the direction he had heard the sound come from.

* * *

When the teen reached the source of the scream he was shocked at what he saw. The first thing he noticed was that the two men that had robbed him earlier were lying on the ground covered in blood, clearly dead.

He walked a bit closer to try and see what had happened; when he did he was shocked. The first man looked like he had been chewed in half, and the second seemed to have been thrown onto the ground fairly hard.

At this moment he heard the same scream again and quickly ran off in the direction he had heard it.

Soon thereafter the teen was greeted by an even more horrifying sight. There was a Hollow around sixty meters in front of him. The Hollow had managed to corner a soul and, though the teen could not hear it, seemed to be giving a lengthy monologue of some sort.

The intelligent thing to do would be to simply turn away and run before the Hollow noticed his presence and the teen intended to do just that when he noticed that the soul looked slightly familiar.

It was the same girl he had met earlier that day.

The teen quickly realized what had most likely occurred, the men probably had cornered the girl and threatened her in some way, which was likely the time of the first scream. Before the men had managed to harm the girl a Hollow had appeared and, since the men would have been closer, it focused on them first. The Hollow had grabbed the men and started to eat them, the girl, seeing her chance had made a run for it but had somehow attracted the attention of the Hollow. The Hollow threw the second man into the ground and chased after the girl. The girl eventually noticed that the Hollow was chasing her and that was the time of the second scream. Before the teen arrived the Hollow would have managed to corner the girl and began its monologue.

He had thought he was having a bad day, with being mugged and whatnot, if he was having a bad day, then her day must be absolutely atrocious. What made him feel even worse was the uncaring way he had treated her earlier. The teen knew he had a tendency to act a bit cold and uncaring to others, and at the time he really did not intend to come off as annoyed with the girl.

The girl had said that she was new here; she had not even been given a proper chance to exist here yet, this was almost as bad as when a child dies, they have not had the chance to live out their lives yet. With all this guilt running through him the teen decided he would do something, even though logic said that he stood no chance against the Hollow, to help the girl. At the very least, she would experience an act of kindness before she was eaten by the Hollow.

As the teen began to run at the Hollow the girl must have seen him, she started to say something but he could not hear what it was. Whatever she said it clearly had angered the Hollow, as it immediately picked her up and ate her. The teen was shocked, her life ended in an instant, and he could do nothing to change it. He was sure that at the last second something would happen, maybe the Hollow would have noticed him and decided to come after him first.

The Hollow licked its lips and sniffed the air. The teen got a sense that the Hollow was surprised at whatever it had smelled, then he noticed that the hollow was staring directly at him, and that he was standing in the middle of the road, frozen, with no way to defend himself. The phrase 'Be careful what you wish for.' came to the teen's mind as the Hollow that he had been so eager to distract a mere thirty seconds ago stared him down.

The Hollow made its way over to the teen, as it got closer he heard it laughing, it was the most disturbing and terrifying sound he had ever heard.

"This is becoming quite the productive night." laughed the Hollow "Four souls? This is cause for a celebration, don't you agree?" the Hollow asked the teen.

"Shut up, if you are going to eat me then just do it, I don't want to put up with a lengthy monologue!" the teen shouted at the Hollow.

"Oh don't worry, I decided a long time ago that I would keep my monologues limited to one per day, they were really getting in the way of productivity. Since you seem so eager I will be more than happy to grant your request!" the Hollow stated as it reached out to the teen.

Just as the teen was about to be killed a large gash appeared on the Hollow's mask and it dissolved into nothing. Through the fading Hollow the teen saw a Shinigami with a drawn Zanpakuto.

"Hey, are you alright?" the Shinigami asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, I am fine, but the other souls he consumed are not." the teen said dimly.

"It isn't your fault that they were eaten, there was nothing you could do against a Hollow." the Shinigami said, trying to keep him from blaming himself.

"Yes, there was nothing I could do against the Hollow, but the girl that was just eaten by the Hollow noticed me when I started to run at them. She must have said something to anger the Hollow and make it eat her, thinking it would give me time to get away. If I hadn't charged at the Hollow she might have been alive when you got here." the teen said, his voice becoming less lively with each word.

"And how could you have known that I was coming this way? It is not your fault so stop over-thinking the situation. If it bothers you that much that you were unable to do anything then make use of that spirit energy I can sense inside of you, go become a Shinigami." the Shinigami told the teen in a calm but commanding voice.

"Wait, what? I have spirit energy?" the teen asked, completely shocked at the possibility that he had the potential to kill Hollows as easily as this person had.

"Yes you do, and a good deal of it as well. You have the potential to become fairly powerful, it would be a great benefit to everyone if you decided to become a Shinigami." the Shinigami explained.

"Alright, I know I need to head to the academy in order to become a Shinigami but when is the entrance test offered?" the teen asked.

"The entrance exam starts being offered in a week, if you leave within a day or so you should be able to make it in time. Now I need to get back to my mission, there are other Hollows around. Good luck at the academy." the Shinigami said before running off.

'Well, since he left before he could tell me where this academy is I guess I will have to ask around tomorrow.' the teen thought to himself as he started walking back to his home.

* * *

The next morning the teen woke up, scratched his head, and thought about the interesting dream he had last night.

After thinking it over for a bit the teen realized that he was a bit upset that it was only a dream, the idea of being a Shinigami interested him. He decided it would be best not to dwell on the thought and got up to go get some water from the nearby town.

The teen was almost ready to head into the town when he realized that nearly all his money had been stolen.

'Maybe it wasn't a dream. No, best not to get my hopes up, I should just head into town and get myself some water.' the teen thought.

The teen walked into town and went to the shop that sold water.

"Good morning." the teen greeted the shopkeeper.

"Morning to you too, I thought about it, and as thanks for helping me out yesterday you can have some water for free today, it is the least I can do." the shopkeeper said with a look that said 'If you refuse my offer I will beat you over the head with this chair.' the teen decided it was in his best interest to accept the offer.

"Thanks, I appreciate it but please don't feel like you cheated me, I thought you paid me perfectly fairly for what I did" the teen said as he took the water.

"Hey, it was bugging me, just take the water and go!" the shopkeeper yelled with fake anger.

The teen laughed and walked off.

"Wait up!" a voice yelled.

The teen turned around and saw the man who had asked for him to deliver the letter.

"You never came back for your pay, then I heard about the hollow attack in that area and that three people were killed and well, I thought you were dead. Good to see you are alive." the man said.

"Oh right, thanks. You were almost right, the Hollow nearly got me but a Shinigami arrived in time to save me, I completely forgot about coming back to get my pay in the confusion." the teen explained

'Wait, so it was not a dream? I can become a Shinigami?' the teen asked himself 'Well, I don't really have any friends to say bye to, I suppose I should at least tell the shopkeeper so people don't get too worried.' The teen walked back over to the water shop.

"Hey." the teen said.

The shopkeeper turned and said "Oh, hey. If you are going to try and pay me for that wat-"

"No, I just wanted to let you know that I was going to go and become a Shinigami, I didn't want anyone to worry and I felt bad leaving without saying bye." the teen interrupted.

"Oh, well good for you. Don't worry I will make sure nobody worries about you. Good luck." the shopkeeper said.

"Thanks, I will visit if I get a chance." the teen said.

"No you will not visit. Are you trying to tell me that as a Shinigami you will come back to some run down town, just to visit some people that you talked with occasionally? No, leave this town and don't look back. You have an entire life ahead of you, you are too young to have to carry the burdens of a past." the shopkeeper paused to take a breath "Good luck, enjoy yourself, and don't worry about this town, you are moving on to a better life and I know that anyone in this town that knows you will give you their full support."

"Wow, I never thought you would be the type for motivational speeches like that." the teen laughed "Still, thanks, it means a lot to me that you are happy for me."

"Normally you're right about the speeches, I don't usually say things like that, but think of it as advice from someone who has lived much longer than you." the shopkeeper said with a serious tone "But don't you have to get going? The academy isn't all that close and I'm sure they won't appreciate you being late." the shopkeeper let the serious tone drop a bit.

"Yeah, I just need to figure out how to get there." he said.

"Well I don't know that personally, but I would imagine that if you head to the Seireitei you should find people that know." the shopkeeper offered.

"Thanks take care of yourself." the teen said as he turned.

"If anyone here should be taking care of themselves it is you. Word on the street is that fighting Hollows is a bit more dangerous than running a shop. Now leave already, and enjoy yourself." the shopkeeper said as he waved.

The teen just raised his hand in response and walked back to his home. After gathering a few basic things he walked out of the town and never looked back.

* * *

The journey to the Seireitei was uneventful and relaxing for the teen, that night really had affected him and he didn't realize how much he needed to relax a bit.

The shopkeepers words proved correct, as he reached the first district he found a Shinigami who gave him directions to the academy.

When the teen finally reached the academy he realized that this was the last moment of his life as a helpless soul, as soon as he walked through that gate he would become someone who mattered, someone who was able to change things.

At this thought the teen looked up, smiled, and walked through the entrance.

* * *

Words (without ANs since they tend to be long): 4294

AN: Ok, so that was the first chapter of my first fanfic EVER. This is also the first bit of fictional writing I have ever attempted in my life so any and all feedback that doesn't make me want to go cry in a corner is welcome.

If you notice spelling or grammar errors of ANY KIND AT ALL ANYWHERE, REVIEW AND TELL ME, PLEASE. I am going to be very OCD about this, my logic is that even if the plot sucks, or my writing style is garbage, THERE WILL BE NO SPELLING OR GRAMMER ERRORS. I want to at least have done something right when I write this.

As far as this story goes I have a fairly detailed plan on where I want this to go. No I will not tell you, it is a surprise. Deal with it. Although this is already planned out in detail I am completely open to suggestions, if I really like the idea I will try and fit it in with my plans. I have the second chapter written right now, but I want to see some people tell me what I can change with my writing before I post it, once I have some idea of how I can improve my writing I will go through the second chapter and improve it, then post it. There will not be a fixed schedule for when I will update this story, I simply am not experienced enough with writing to be able to churn things out at a constant rate. I would expect around one update per week, because I have a lot of free time on weekends.

Also, in this story I will not be using honorifics. I would like to use them but I cannot because I do not know much about them and focusing on that while still trying to manage the plot is simply beyond my ability currently. If this story is well liked enough I will go back and change it to include honorifics.

I know that I did not give a description or even name to the main character, all you know right now is that he is a teenager, has black hair, is male, and has dark blue eyes. This is intentional, and there will be a much more detailed description in the next chapter. There are some aspects of his personality that are only hinted at in this chapter as well, once again these will be revealed over time.

There will be romance later in the story, I will not tell you who is involved, and if there are some pairings that you absolutely cannot stand, say something in a review and I will take note of it. It is better to know this now, before the plot is too solidified to change in a clean way. I don't need reasons you hate a pairing, a list works fine, of course reasons and an argument might convince me more easily. Remember, I don't want you all to hate me, if ninety percent of the reviews say (as an example) No ichihime, there will not be ichihime unless the progression of that pairing has already reached a point where I cannot easily end it. So tell me sooner rather than later.

If you guys want to do me a bit of a favor, and make lists of character names and maybe brief descriptions I will give them roles in the story, the more I like the name and the description the bigger role they will get. If you want me to make them one of the really important characters I need a physical description, a personality description and a description of their abilities. As far as abilities go, I need BOTH Shinigami abilities and hollow abilities, depending on how I want to fit them in, if they are an Arrancar or Visored I will likely combine them. If you include a Bankai description I may not use it, but if you specifically do not want the character to have an ability or say something. Don't just think of nice happy characters, I need bad guys too. Be sure to send these things in a PM, not a review. If there is one thing I hate in this world besides puppies (That was a joke, I usually don't hate puppies) it is spoilers, like when the trailer for a movie reveals half the plot. Or the summary for a story reveals half the plot. I like to have abilities and whatnot be a surprise, not something that is known to everyone who reads the story before it actually happens.

If you would like for me to clarify something that happened, just want to get a bit more detail on something, or want to know why I did something a particular way, don't hesitate to either PM me or ask in a review, I will try to answer your questions without giving away too much.

Last thing, I promise. The only reason this AN is so long is that it is the first one in the story, there are a load of things I needed to say so it had to be kinda long. Sorry if it hurts your head/eyes/face/whatever.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Hey guys, so first order of business:

THANK YOU to **Ducky the Insomniac Panda. **Your review is the reason I was able to post this chapter today. I had originally planned to write this next weekend but you motivated me to write it now. THANK YOU.

Enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach.

Damaged souls

Chapter 2: The Shin'ō Academy

* * *

**Day:** Saturday, the 12th

**Month:** August

**Year: **1428

**Time:** 2:48 PM

**Location: **Just outside the Shin'ō Academy

The black haired teen looked around as he entered the Academy. What he saw was unlike anything he had ever seen before, everything was perfectly clean, and the people were all dressed very well. The two things that caught his eyes the most were the plants that grew inside, and the artwork that was on some of the walls. The teen had never before seen plants inside and he liked the idea of being able to grow something inside a home. He made a note to himself to look into getting a simple plant to put in whatever room he was assigned, assuming that he got in of course. The paintings were something that the teen had only heard stories about, he understood what they were but what really surprised him was the level of detail put into the work. These weren't just sketches like he had seen in Rukongai, where people often would carve a simple image into a sign to allow people who were unable to read a chance to figure out what was for sale, or if a shop was open or closed. These images were created for the sole purpose of showing how the painter had seen a place at a certain time.

Realizing that he was not here to drag his lower jaw along the ground staring at indoor plants and paintings the teen snapped out of his awe-induced trance and made his way over to what looked to be a front desk.

"How can I help you?" a tired looking woman asked.

"I would like to apply for the Academy." the teen said with as much confidence as he could gather.

"Well, you are a day early" the woman paused "but since it usually gets pretty busy once the Academy is officially open for applicants I will let you apply now. Here, fill out this form and return it to me." the woman said.

"Thanks." the teen said as he took the form and went to go sit down and fill it out.

After a few minutes the teen returned the form to the woman. She filled out a few parts that had been labeled as 'Leave blank' and passed the form back to the teen.

"Go check this over, make sure there are not any issues." the woman instructed.

The teen looked at the form.

**First Name: **Rein

**Last Name: **N/A

**Birthday: **September 18th, 1348

**Physical age: **17

**LEAVE ALL BELOW THIS BLANK**

**Hair color: **Black

**Eye color: **Blue

**Height: **188 cm (AN: This is around 6 foot 2)

**Physical description: **Fairly thin, short hair, spiky, pale skin, decently muscled.

"Looks fine to me." the teen said.

"Good, now if you go through that door there will be a room with some chairs; sit down and wait until someone calls your name. They will begin testing you to see if you have what it takes to be a Shinigami." the woman instructed.

"Ok, thanks." the teen said as he walked over to the door.

When Rein entered the room he decided to not get distracted by anything and quickly sat down in a nearby chair.

Around two minutes later a man came into the room.

"Rein, come with me so we can test you." the man said.

Rein stood up and followed the man into a small room with a desk and a chair.

"Here is the test, just do your best. The written test is not the only part so try not to kill yourself." the man said and handed the teen a few sheets of paper and something to write with.

The teen looked down at the test. It was divided into three sections, a survey, a general section, and a mathematics section.

The teen started with the survey, it asked questions that were fairly simple, and didn't require much thought. Questions like; 'Have you ever seen a Hollow?', 'What made you come to the Academy?', and 'Where did you live before coming here?'

After finishing that section Rein moved on to the general section. It was noticeably more difficult but still was not too bad. It had questions like; 'What is the main job of a Shinigami?', 'What organizations can people who graduate from the Academy join?', and 'When and by whom was the Academy founded?'

The teen had decided to save the best for last, he simply loved math. This section had questions like; 'What is 2+9?', '8X + 34 = 3, solve for X', and 'What is the anti-derivative of ln(X)?'

When the teen handed the test back to the man he looked through it. When he reached the math section a surprised look came over his face.

"That is odd, normally only nobles are able to get past the first few questions in the math section, where did you learn all of this?" the man asked.

"I really enjoy reading, I bought quite a few books over the years and some of those books were textbooks." the teen explained.

"Ok, come with me and we will test your physical abilities." the man said, leading the teen through another door.

The teen looked around, they were outside and over to one side he saw the main part of the Academy. There were a few students walking around there, some stopped to look over at him. In the center of the field was a massive obstacle course, it had everything that could be thought of, from a simple run to a series of bars that had to be climbed and jumped to. Something you would see in a platform game.

"All that you need to do for this section of the test is complete this course as fast as you possibly can. Any questions?" the man asked.

"Nope, just tell me when to start." the teen answered.

"Ok." the man paused for a second "Go!" he yelled.

The teen took off as fast as he could; the first fifteen minutes of the course were easy. After that point Rein started to feel tired. After around half an hour of the course he was ready to give up.

'I'll just stop here to take a break for a few seconds.' the teen thought.

"Hey! What are you doing? Would you take a break if you were fighting a Hollow?" the man yelled from across the field, apparently he did not like the idea of the teen taking a break.

'Fine, I guess I will just have to do it, regardless of how tiring this is.' the teen thought as he started running again. Strangely enough he didn't feel tired anymore, he felt like he had found a massive reserve of energy hidden somewhere within his body.

After just five more minutes the teen had arrived at the final part of the course, the platform game inspired torture device. The teen looked around for a way to get up but saw none.

'What? Am I supposed to jump or something?' the teen asked himself 'Well might as well give it a try.'

Rein gathered all of the energy he had left and jumped up. He had actually made it to the first platform. he repeated this a few more times and he was at the second to last one. The teen started to feel a bit dizzy. Using all of his remaining energy the teen jumped to the top platform, landed, and passed out.

The man sighed 'Now we need to find someone who is able to actually go up there and get him.' the man thought.

* * *

Rein awoke to find himself in a bed; he quickly sat up and looked around.

"Hey, slow down, you managed to pass the second test, and then some. You need to rest for a bit." said the man who had been giving him the test.

"Really? But I passed out before I could get down from the top. Doesn't that mean I failed?" the teen questioned.

"The actual point of the test was to make sure that you would be willing to keep going until you were unable to move anymore, it is unimportant how far you got." the man explained.

"That seems a bit unfair, so I was supposed to be unable to make it through?" the teen asked.

"That was the idea, physical ability does not matter too much for a Shinigami because they are able to use their Reiatsu to enhance their strength and endurance." the man pointed out.

"I see. What is the next test?" Rein inquired.

"Well the third and final test would be a test of your Reiryoku, but that is irrelevant now." the man responded.

The teen gave him a confused stare.

"After I told you not to take a break you started to tap into your Reiryoku to force your body to move, testing to see that you have any Reiatsu is pointless because you have already shown that ability. This generally happens for around four potential students per year." the man elaborated.

"So I passed?" the teen stated.

"Yes, you passed. When you are ready I will take you to the main area of the Academy where we will get you a uniform." the man said.

"When can we leave?" Rein asked, a smile creeping its way onto his face.

* * *

After Rein had put on his uniform he asked the man what he should do now.

"Well, classes don't start for a bit more than a week. You have a few options, you can stay here or you can go back to the town you used to live in for a bit." the man suggested.

The teen thought about going back to the town but the shopkeepers words came back to him. "Where do I stay?" the teen asked.

"The living area is over there, come with me and we will find you a room." the main said, leading the teen off in the direction of the entrance.

When they reached the entrance they went up to the front desk. Rein noticed that the same woman from before was there still, that would explain the tired look she had on her face when he had first arrived.

"You will be in the eighth building in room number one-hundred-twelve, it is on the sixth floor." the woman said before they even had a chance to ask.

"Thanks." the man said, laughing to himself as he headed off in the direction of the teens room, with Rein following close behind.

"Since you are the first person to apply this year you will not have a roommate yet, you will get one soon. There will be a bookshelf in the room that will have all the books you will need to use over the next six years. If you want you can start reading them now, it will give you a bit of a head start." the man paused "I will come and get you tomorrow morning so we can go over some general rules." the man continued.

"Ok, thank you for all the help today, I will definitely start reading the books now." the teen said with a smile.

"Ok, have fun. Just one request, do not attempt any Kido yet, we like to keep the explosions to a minimum." the man joked.

"I will make sure not to break anything then." Rein responded and he walked into his room.

Upon entering his room a few things in particular caught his eye. The first was an interesting looking plant that sat in one of the corners. The second was that there was a balcony with a few chairs overlooking the gardens. The third was the painting that was on one of the walls. The painting was a combination of the symbols for the Gotei 13, Onmitsukido, and Kido corps symbols. The Gotei 13 symbol was on the outside, the Kido corps was the middle, and the inside was the symbol for the Onmitsukido.

The last thing that caught Rein's eye was the bookshelf; it had loads of books, from novels to textbooks to a dictionary. Exited he went over and grabbed one that looked interesting, _'A general guide to being a Shinigami'. _The teen quickly started reading the book.

One technique in particular stuck in his head, Jinzen, the teen read that one needed to place their sword on their lap and meditate. He was eager to try this but there was one problem, he didn't have a sword yet. He figured he would ask about that tomorrow. In the meantime he decided to start memorizing Kido names and incantations.

After he had memorized all Kido from one to twenty Rein decided to go to sleep.

* * *

"Rein." a voice called.

"Rein!" the voice got louder.

The teen started to open his eyes and saw a dark shape with two glowing blue dots before he woke up.

'Odd dream.' the teen thought.

The teen sat up and rubbed his eyes before getting out of bed and getting changed into his uniform.

A few minutes after he changed he heard some knocking on his door. "Rein, get up, we need to go over the rules." it was the man from yesterday.

"Ok, coming." the teen responded as he opened the door.

"Good morning." the man told him.

"Good morning to you as well." the teen responded "Where will we be going?"

"Just follow me and we will be returning to the entrance." the man explained.

"So did you manage to read all of the books on the shelf yet?" the man joked.

"No, I only got through half of them, I was really tired." Rein played along.

"I read about a technique called Jinzen in one of the books, I wanted to try it but I don't have a Zanpakuto yet. Do you know when I will get one?" the teen asked.

"Students will receive a Asauchi on the first day of their Zanjutsu class, it will slowly change form into your true Zanpakuto as it is exposed to your Reiatsu." the man seemed to think something over before saying "In theory it is possible to generate your own Zanpakuto but that has never been done before."

"So would that mean that the Zanpakuto spirit will not be present at all until the Shinigami begins to bond with the Asauchi?" the teen guessed.

"Yes, that is the general idea." the man confirmed.

By then they had arrived back at the entrance, it was much more crowded than before, as this was the first day of testing. There had to be at least two-hundred people crammed into the building.

"Change of plans, it looks like they will need my help testing so I am going to get you a copy of the rulebook, if you have any questions just find me and I will answer them." the man said before running off.

Shortly after that the man returned and passed a book to Rein. "Ok I will find you when the testing is over, you can wait on one of the benches. Just so you know, I may send over a few of the accepted students to you. You don't need to do anything, just talk to them for a bit." the man said.

"Ok, that's fine. Thanks for the book." the teen called after the man who, by now, was running off to the front desk.

The teen looked at the book, the front cover had _'Rules, Guidelines, and Procedures of the Shin'ō Academy'_ written on the front cover. He opened the book and began to read.

**Rules:**

**1. There will be no fighting of any sort without specific instructor permission.**

**2. Threats to anyone will not be tolerated.**

**3. Any damage to Academy property will be paid for by the one responsible.**

** If the damage occurs during a class then it is the instructor's responsibility.**

**4. Any behavior that will reflect badly on the Academy is strictly prohibited.**

**Guidelines:**

**1. Class should have first priority in all situations.**

**2. Casting of Kido spells outside of class is permissible, but not encouraged outside of training grounds.**

**3. It is the responsibility of the student to awake in time to attend class.**

**4. Maintain control over your Reiatsu, excess release of energy can affect your surroundings.**

**Procedures:**

**1. There will be three meals per day, supplied by the Academy, at fixed times throughout the day.**

** Breakfast will be served from 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM.**

** Lunch will be served from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.**

** Dinner will be served from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.**

**2. Class will be held five days per week with the remaining two left free for recreation.**

**3. In the event of a complaint please inform the front desk located in the entrance.**

**4. Placement testing is available at any time for any student.**

** Standard placement.**

** Advanced placement.**

** Gifted placement.**

** Exceptional placement.**

After reading the first few pages the book became a listing of all courses available at the Academy. The teen started to look through it to find what interested him.

Rein was in the middle of reading a description of _'The art of Shunpo'_, taught by Ginrei Kuchiki when he felt an odd feeling come over him again. This time it was significantly stronger than any other time. The teen looked up to see a girl wearing an Academy uniform standing on top of the table. She had orange eyes, black hair that was tied up by a ribbon of the same color as her eyes, and she was staring at him expectantly.

"Uh, hi." the teen said.

"Hi." the girl responded.

A few moments passed.

"Why are you standing on the table?" Rein inquired.

"I dunno, why not?" the girl responded.

"Fair enough." the teen paused "I'm Rein."

"My name is Senna." the girl replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Rein replied.

Senna then proceeded to jump off the table and sit down next to Rein on the couch. "What are you reading?" she asked.

"I'm reading the rulebook, one of the people giving the tests told me I should read it." he explained.

"Are there any unusual rules I should know about?" she questioned.

"Not really, they are all pretty standard: don't fight, don't threaten people, don't break stuff, and don't act like an idiot because it makes the Academy look bad." he answered.

"Where did you live before you came here?" he asked.

"I lived in the 28th district of north Rukongai, it was pretty nice there but I didn't have a family." she explained.

"I was in the 36th district of north Rukongai, I don't have a family either." he responded.

The two teens continued asking and answering questions for about two hours before the man came back and said it was time for a lunch break. They quickly jumped up at the idea of some food and eagerly followed the man out of the room.

* * *

After they had finished eating Rein asked how the testing was going.

"No major issues so far but Senna is the only one who has passed today, judging by the lack of Reiatsu from anyone else in that crowd I think today is going to be rather unproductive." the man said dimly.

"Is there anything I can do to begin training? I want to see if I can do some of the techniques I read about last night." Rein inquired.

"If you want you can go and use the obstacle course, I need to go and start testing again but you two are more than welcome to give it a few attempts." the man offered.

Having nothing else to do the two teens accepted the offer and began to head over to the course.

While Senna was doing a warm up run Rein sat in the position used for Jinzen with his eyes closed. He was trying to draw out some of his Reiryoku so that he could move faster.

By the time Senna got back Rein was surrounded in a very faint but still noticeable blue glow. He had managed to increase his Reiatsu just barely enough for it to be visible.

"You're glowing!" Senna exclaimed upon seeing the blue glow.

"What?" the teen opened his eyes and lost focus, the glow dissipated.

"It went away." Senna said, sounding a bit sad.

"Ok then. Would you like to race?" Rein asked. He was fairly confident that he would be able to use his Reiatsu to keep himself from passing out this time.

"Sure!" Senna said.

A few seconds later the two teens were right next to eachother, getting ready to start.

"Three." Rein said.

"Two!" Senna yelled.

"One." Rein said, a bit louder this time

"Go!" they both yelled at the same time and started running.

For the flat portion of the course they remained evenly matched. Senna started to get a the lead when Rein began to divert his focus to calling out his Reiatsu, she managed to get about one minute ahead of him.

"Got it!" Rein yelled out. The blue glow was back and he was moving much faster.

Rein quickly caught up to Senna because he was able to simply jump over half the obstacles, by the time they reached the last obstacle the blue glow had started to fade. Noticing that his Reiatsu was decreasing again Rein stopped running to focus and begin using it.

Senna took advantage of Rein's need to stay still and began climbing the final obstacle.

The blue glow was back in full and Rein knew that the only way he could win would be to get up would be to make it in a single jump. He remembered a technique that he had read about last night where a Shinigami focuses his Reiatsu into his feet and uses it to 'fly'. While Rein was positive he did not have the skill or raw power to manage flight, he knew he could use it to give him a bit of a boost.

He closed his eyes and began to focus on gathering Reiryoku near below his feet. He jumped up and let all of the energy out in a burst. He flew up just high enough to grab the edge of the top platform. Just as started to pull himself up he saw Senna jump from the second to last platform and land softly above him. She was surrounded by a faint gold aura.

"Nice jump, I picked up on your trick." she said smugly.

"I'm surprised it actually worked, I expected to either fall short or completely overdo it." Rein admitted as he pulled himself up onto the platform.

"Well done." a voice called from down below them. The teens looked down as saw the man from earlier, he was clapping and smiling. "Both of you just earned yourselves spots in the Gifted level Hoho class."

Both teens decided to climb down, with Rein arriving first. Suddenly a weight landed on top of him and knocked him to the ground. He looked up and saw Senna standing on top of him.

"That's for trying to cheat." she said before bursting out laughing and removing her foot from his chest.

Rein just groaned in pain as he got up and dusted himself off. Senna just kept laughing.

"You two must be hungry after using your Reiryoku like that; luckily lunch is still being served. Why don't you head over and grab some more food?" the man suggested.

The teens were gone before he managed to finish talking. 'Kids are always so amusing.' the man thought to himself before heading back to finish up testing.

The teens had finished eating when Senna said she wanted to find where her room was so she could sleep. They walked back to the entrance.

"Ninth building, room one-hundred-ten, sixth floor." The woman at the desk said, once again, without being asked. The teens thanked her and she tossed a key to Senna.

After Senna had gone into her room Rein headed back to his, he walked over to the shelf, grabbed a book on Hoho, walked back to his bed, and started to read. After a few hours of reading Rein realized that he didn't know enough about controlling Reiryoku to understand most of the concepts in the book. Too tired to get up and grab a different book he closed the Hoho book and placed it on the table next to the bed.

Rein fell asleep thinking about his first friend.

* * *

Words: 4079

AN: There it is, the second chapter. Review if you enjoyed this. Did I do a good job with writing Senna? I think I didn't let her get too OOC but I am not sure.

I am in a desperate need for OCs. Right now I am looking for four to sixteen OCs that will be Academy students along with Rein and Senna. Send me a PM with a description of the character. You don't need to tell me their Shikai and Bankai right now, I will PM you if I decide I will need one later on. I could also use a few OCs that could be teachers.

If you had a hard time picturing Rein, his hair is styled similar to Ichigo and Kaien's hair but his is slightly longer, it reaches the top of his eyes and is also a bit spikier. The color of his Reiatsu (If you understand RGB colors) is 0, 50, 200. If you don't understand that then it is almost pure blue with a tiny tint of green in it.

Seriously, send me some OCs, I really will not be able to write the next chapter unless I have a few. This is the reason that Senna was the only student found today. I didn't have any other characters planned.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Just read it. Some interesting things happen.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach.

Damaged Souls

Chapter 3: Before classes

* * *

**Day:** Monday, the 14th

**Month: **August

**Year: **1428

**Time: **7:30 AM

**Location: **Rein's room

Rein opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He had the exact same dream again, the voice was a bit clearer this time but he still did not manage to see anything more than the two glowing blue dots.

Sighing, the teen got out of bed and put on his uniform. He decided he would eat some breakfast and started heading over to the cafeteria.

When Rein arrived at the cafeteria he headed for the counter where he could get his food and grabbed a bit of everything. He then walked around to find a place to sit, he saw Senna sitting alone at a table, eating a huge amount of food.

"Good morning." he said to her.

"Mhfg mrgghsf." she replied.

"I am just going to assume you were trying to say good morning but had too much food in your mouth to speak properly." the teen said. Senna nodded vigorously before returning to her food. Rein couldn't help but laugh at the situation, at least until Senna shot him a scary 'keep laughing and I will tear your ear off' look. After that he just sat down and started to eat his food.

"So, why did you decide to eat half the available food?" Rein asked sarcastically, after Senna had finished eating.

"Last night I started reading that book about controlling Reiatsu and I decided to try it out. I ended up using too much of my Reiryoku though and I passed out, when I woke up I was really hungry so I came here." Senna explained.

Soon after that Rein finished his food and the teens headed off to the entrance to see if more people had turned up today.

When the teens arrived they noticed that more people did show up, a lot more people. There were upwards of three-hundred people in line to be tested. Since they did not see the man anywhere they decided to head outside. This time they would stay away from the obstacle course and just race on foot.

Rein started to raise his Reiatsu in preparation for the race, gaining a very faint blue glow. Senna did the same.

"First one to that tree and back wins?" Rein asked, pointing at a tree that was around three kilometers away.

"Sounds good, let's go!" Senna replied and took off running.

Senna was well in the lead at the beginning, she had managed to get a bit of a head start. Slowly Rein began to get faster. He did not get fast enough in time to beat Senna to the tree but he was only a second behind. He jumped into the air before he hit the tree and gathered Reiryoku into his feet. As soon as his feet touched the tree he pushed off with his legs and let out the Reiatsu in his feet, this not only propelled him well past Senna, it also left a large gash in the side of the tree. Sadly, his landing did not go as planned, he smashed head first into the wall where they had started.

Senna was only a few seconds away from finishing when she saw her friend fly past her, keep going, and smash headfirst into the wall. Upon seeing this she started laughing uncontrollably and managed to trip herself, of course, she landed on some nice soft grass.

Rein groaned in pain as he pushed himself off the ground.

"Did I win?" he asked, still dizzy from the impact.

"Yes, I give you a ten out of ten for the landing." Senna said, still laughing.

After the laughing and groaning had stopped Senna said she was going to go get some water. Rein decided to use the time to do a bit of psudo-Jinzen.

Rein got up and looked around for a good place to sit, he saw a fairly comfortable looking rock off to the side of the field and started to walk over.

When he arrived at the rock the teen sat down and closed his eyes, focusing only on his Reiryoku.

* * *

"Rein." the voice called.

"Rein, can you hear me?" the voice asked.

"Yeah, I can hear you. Who are you?" the teen asked, still keeping his eyes shut.

"You would not be able to hear my name even if I did tell you." the voice said. "But you should be able to see me now."

Rein opened his eyes and was shocked at what he saw.

The figure in front of him was his height. It had long blue hair that seemed to turn into blue flames at the ends. It wore a long black coat that also seemed to dissolve into black flames at the ends. The chest of the coat was solid, like a piece of armor. Its entire arms were covered in the same sort of armor with large spikes forming at the shoulders. The legs were similar to the arms, the boots ending with spikes that were painful just to look at. Slung across the figures back was a sword, an extremely long sword. It was close to Rein's height.

Almost as intimidating as the figure was the location that they were in. They were in a massive desert with pure white sand. The sky was dominated by a massive moon that cast light on the surroundings. What made it odd was the clouds though, it seemed like they moved around the moon so as to never block off its light. There was a consistent downpour and yet the sand never seemed to get wet. Upon closer inspection Rein realized that the clouds were not avoiding the moon, the moon was just at a lower altitude than the clouds.

"Who are you?" Rein asked again, returning his attention to the figure.

"I told you, you will not be able to hear my name, but I can tell you what I am." the figure paused "I am your Zanpakuto."

"That can't be true, a Shinigami's Zanpakuto does not exist until they begin to bond with an Asauchi." Rein protested.

"That is normally the case, but you met a Hollow. A normal soul's Reiryoku is neither Hollow nor Shinigami, it is neutral. When you felt the Hollow's Reiryoku your own Reiryoku was forced to pick a side, it chose the side of a Shinigami because that went along best with what you wanted at the time. You wanted to be able to kill the Hollow and protect others. That is the purpose of a Shinigami." The figure explained.

"So if you are here does that mean I will be able to use your sealed form?" the teen asked.

"Yes it does, now that you know what I am you should have a sword by the time you get to the real world." the figure responded "Before you go, if you wish to wield my full power in the future you must never give up, if you are too weak then become stronger. Follow that and you will be able to achieve your potential."

"Thank you for the advice." Rein stated as he started to fade.

* * *

Back in the real world Rein opened his eyes and looked around. Senna, the man, and another teen with white hair were all looking at him in a concerned way.

Before he could get a word out Senna tackled him to the ground with an overly enthusiastic hug.

"Ug-gh-yo-u-are-choa-kin-gme." the teen gasped out.

"Sorry, I was just kinda worried. I came back after getting some water and I saw you sitting on this rock with your eyes closed. It looked like you were on fire but it was blue. I sorta panicked and ran to find help. I found the man and he told me take him to you, he told the person who had just finished testing to come along with him." Senna explained before letting go of Rein.

"Yes, she looked quite worried, I had no idea what she was saying, it was like the writer forgot to put spaces between the words or something." the man said "I thought it best to just come over and check on you myself."

Before Rein had a chance to respond he felt a surge of Reiatsu come off of him. It didn't last long, just a pulse. A few seconds later and the pulse repeated. He noticed that the Reiryoku was not dissipating near his chest, as soon as he touched the blue glow he felt something solid in his hand, he quickly pulled it away from him.

As soon as the object was removed from his chest the bursts of Reiatsu stopped. Rein looked down at the object in his hand.

It was a Zanpakuto. It had a black sheath and the hilt was the same blue as his eyes. There was a length of chain attached to the bottom of the hilt, at the end of the chain there was an X shaped charm. The same shape formed the guard on the blade. Rein drew the sword out of its sheath. As he held the blade in his hand it seemed that blue flames danced across the surface as the blade reflected the sky. Speaking of the blade, it was very long. The sword took the form of a nodachi, the blade was one-hundred-forty-eight centimeters long and the hilt was thirty-two centimeters long, a grand total of one-hundred-eighty centimeters. The sword was only eight centimeters shorter than he was.

Despite the size of the weapon it felt natural to hold it, Rein had no trouble lifting it and placing it back in the sheath. He then fastened the sheath to the back of his uniform the same way that his Zanpakuto spirit had.

Rein, remembering that he was not alone in the field, looked over at his audience.

He saw Senna, looking like she had just got in an argument with a hurricane, the man who was trying to pick his jaw up from the ground, and the white haired teen was looking at a bird that was flying around overhead.

The man spoke up first. "Is that a Zanpakuto?" he asked.

"Yeah it is." the teen answered.

"But how did you get it?" the man looked stunned.

"I am not really sure, I had a conversation with my Zanpakuto spirit and he said that the Zanpakuto should take shape when I came back here." the teen responded.

"Well, if your Zanpakuto spirit was present in your inner world then it makes sense for the blade to have formed. It is possible that this has something to do with you tapping into your Reiryoku and being around people that possess a decent quantity of Reiatsu." the man theorized. "Regardless of what happened I would recommend that we keep this a secret from everyone else. We can tell them once you complete the Academy. You would get way too much attention if the entire Seireitei found out about this." the man paused and looked over at the white haired teen "Now, I do not believe you have had a chance to introduce yourself to them yet."

Rein looked over at the white haired student. He looked to be about sixteen, his hair was long and it was put into a braid. He was shorter than Rein, with the top of his head reaching a bit past Rein's chin. What really stood out about him were his eyes. At first glance they looked to be a dark green color but upon closer inspection one could see flecks of red. They looked like what would happen if you took a bowl full of dark green paint, put a few drops of blood red in, and mixed it a bit.

"Hello." the white haired teen said rather shyly "My name is Saiden Yoshitan."

"Nice to meet you Saiden, my name is Rein." Rein said calmly.

Seeming to recover from her shock Senna looked over at the white haired teen and said "Hey, I'm Senna."

"Ok, I am going to take Saiden over to get some food. Rein, you should stay here until we can figure out what we will do about your situation. And Senna, you stay here and keep him from reaching Bankai, we need to be able to teach him something at the Academy." the man said, barely managing to keep a straight face. Senna and Rein just burst out laughing.

"Huh? How could he reach Bankai? He hasn't even reached Shikai yet." Saiden said with a confused look.

"It was a joke, Saiden." the man explained as they walked away.

After they had left Senna turned to Rein. "You. Talk. Now." she said with one of her rare serious looks.

Rein sighed and told her what his Zanpakuto had told him.

"And why did you not say that when the man was here?" Senna asked.

"Because if I did they might start locking up any soul that has had contact with a Hollow, based on what my Zanpakuto said it would be possible for anyone to become a Hollow if they had met one." Rein reasoned "I don't want to be the person who told the Seireitei this information when they would most likely react in an extreme way."

"That makes sense. I will not tell anyone either." Senna told him.

"Thanks." Rein said "So what do you think of the new guy?"

"He is kinda odd, he seems a bit clueless when it comes to jokes. His eyes were really strange." she commented.

The pair continued to chat until the man came back an hour later.

"So Senna, did you do your job?" the man paused "If Rein has Bankai now I am going to be disappointed." the man joked.

"Don't worry, he was close but I stopped him just in time." Senna laughed out.

"Ok, I am going to go back and resume the testing, if anyone asks about the sword just say it is an Asauchi." the main said before walking off.

"So, what do you feel like doing now?" Senna asked.

Rein scratched his head "I don't know. I am kinda tired so I might just lie dow-"

"Booooring!" Senna cut him off "We should play tag!"

"I'm a bit too tired to pla- Hey!" Rein yelled as Senna ran over, ripped his Zanpakuto off his back, and bolted off across the field.

"I am going to go hide this, so you better stop me!" she yelled.

Rein sighed and began to chase after her.

While chasing here he noticed that she had gotten faster, she was completely outclassing him. Before she could completely get away Rein stopped and started to bring up his Reiatsu. It seemed that forming his Zanpakuto had given him a much greater level of control over it, using this to his advantage he took off after her.

Senna was in the forest, running when she noticed Rein was not behind her anymore, she decided to stop and give him a chance to catch up. She walked over to a nearby tree and sat down next to it.

"Hey." a voice called.

She looked up and saw Rein sitting in the tree, looking relaxed. Before she could even get up he was standing next to her holding his Zanpakuto.

"You got faster." she said, looking impressed.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes." he said as he started walking off, he walked through a especially dense bush "You will be able to keep up with me eventu-" he turned his head and froze.

"Huh, Rein what's wrong?" Senna asked, concerned.

"This place is identical to where I used to live." he said, speechless. He was stunned by how similar this clearing was to where he had made his home. The tree was a bit taller and the bushes around it were a bit taller. Other than that the two places were identical.

Rein walked over to where he had used to sleep and lay down in the grass.

"This place is awesome." Senna said, acting strangely calm.

She went and lied down on the other side of the clearing.

The two teens stayed there for what must have been hours, enjoying the silence.

A growling noise snapped them out of their relaxation. Rein stood up and looked around, his hand on his Zanpakuto.

Senna stood up, a light blush on her face.

"That was my stomach." she said quietly.

Rein burst out laughing "Well, let's go get some food then."

* * *

As the two teens walked out of the woods they heard an echoing tune playing. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Startled Senna began to look around.

She pointed across the field "Look." she said quietly.

Rein looked in the direction she was pointing. Sitting on top of the lone rock in the center of the field sat Saiden. He was playing on an ocarina. The two teens decided not to bother him and continued walking to the cafeteria.

As they were walking it began to rain. Senna squeaked and covered her head. Rein just enjoyed the feeling.

Rain had never bothered him, when he was younger he would run around in the streets while it was raining. He would be the only one who could smile in that sort of situation. That actually was how he got his name. His name had started out as 'Rain' but at the time he had still did not quite know how to spell correctly so he had always written it as 'Rein'. The name stuck with him ever since. Rein did not have any memories of a family, he had been on his own for his entire life.

"Hey!" a yell brought him out of his thoughts. He looked down to see a very wet and very angry Senna glaring up at him. "If you are done staring off into space can we go inside now?"

"I suppose so." Rein smiled.

The teens walked up to get some food. Rein ended up with around three plates worth of food. He was a bit hungry.

"So, what's your excuse for 'eating half the available food'?" Senna asked with a smirk.

Rein swallowed before saying "Well, between forming my Zanpakuto and chasing you around for fifteen minuites I used up a large chunk of my Reiryoku."

After eating the teens headed to their respective rooms. Upon reaching his room Rein lay down on the bed and fell asleep immediately.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes and got out of bed. Getting changed into his uniform he walked outside and looked around, trying to find Senna.

The teen walked over to the field and saw her sitting down surrounded by a gold aura.

"Hey!" he called "It seems that you have improved a bit, that was fast."

"Huh?" she looked around and saw Rein "Oh, hey."

"How did you improve so much?" he asked.

"You have been asleep for the past three days, this is the last day that the test is being offered." she explained "I was going to go wake you up but the man said that you needed your rest."

"Three days? I suppose that explains how you improved so much." he said "So any interesting new people show up?"

"Not really, I didn't pay much attention because I spent most of the time out here practicing." she said.

"So is tomorrow a break day or do we have class?" Rein asked.

"We have an introduction class type thing. We find out what levels we have been placed in and where we need to go for each class." she stated.

"Ok, time to work on catching up to you." the teen said as he sat down.

"Right, the person who managed to form their Zanpakuto already is going to try and catch up to me. This makes sense." Senna laughed.

Rein just shook his head and began to focus. Soon both of them were increasing their Reiatsu in a competition to see who could raise it the highest. For a while Senna had a solid lead, her golden aura completely outclassing Reins blue one.

Rein slowly began to catch up, soon they were even. Sometimes Senna's would be higher and other times Rein's would be.

"Ok, I think it's safe to say that we are evenly matched." Rein said after an hour.

"Yeah." Senna responded.

"Well, I don't know about you but I am in the mood for a race. I've been told that it's been a while since I had a chance to stretch." The teen said with a smirk.

"I'm game." she replied "Same drill, first to the tree and back?"

"Sounds good to me." Rein said.

They both took off running at the same time; much like their previous competition they were evenly matched.

Rein decided he would give his little trick from last time another try and began to gather Reiryoku into his feet. When he neared the tree he jumped up and landed feet first on the side of the trunk. A split second later he pushed off and released the Reiatsu. This time the entire tree fell.

Determined not to mess up the landing this time Rein shoved his hand into the ground and flipped himself onto his feet, coming to a stop against the wall.

A few seconds later Senna came running up to him.

"Looks like I win this one." Rein said.

"You really need to teach me that trick." she complained.

"It is in one of the books, you should be able to find it." Rein paused "I would be more than happy to direct you to the correct page, of course, after we get some food."

"Deal." Senna smiled.

After a fairly detailed explanation and around half an hour of Senna trying to jump up to the roof, Rein headed back to his room. Upon entering he noticed a few things were wrong. The first thing he noticed was that there was a strange person wearing one of the uniforms sitting in the corner holding a book. The second thing he noticed was that he was holding the book upside down. The third issue was that he was sitting next to the chair, not in it.

"Who the hell are you?" Rein asked.

"Huh. Oh, I'm Ryuga, I am your roomate" he said, moving putting the book down.

His appearance was a bit odd, he had brown hair and mint green eyes. He was around Rein's height and he looked to be fairly strong.

"Well, nice to meet you Ryuga." Rein said.

"Where did you get the sword?" Ryuga asked.

"I… found it." he said in the most unconvincing voice possible.

"If you didn't want to tell me you could just say that." Ryuga said, looking annoyed. "I am going to go get some food."

Ryuga stormed off and Rein just went to sleep.

* * *

"Hey, wake up." a voice called.

"What?" Rein said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. He saw Ryuga standing by the door.

"You are going to miss the first day of class." Ryuga said as he left.

Rein quickly got his uniform on, grabbed his Zanpakuto, and headed off to the main building.

* * *

Words: 3862

AN: Ok, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others. Sorry. Good news is that the next chapter will be much longer and more active.

Saiden was created by Forgotten 64

Ryuga was created by yzayfreak

Remember, if you have an idea for an OC PM me the details. Also, if you would like to suggest / anti-suggest a pairing feel free to say so in a review or a PM.

For once I don't have too much to say here…


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Ok, this took me a bit longer to post than I anticipated.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach

Damaged Souls

Chapter 4: First classes

* * *

**Day: **Saturday, the 19th

**Month:** August

**Year: **1428

**Time: **4:03 AM

**Location:** Main building of the Shin'ō Academy

Rein opened the doors to the main building and quickly walked inside. He looked around and that is was barely 4:00 AM and that almost nobody else was there.

'This either means I am really late or really early. I hope it is the latter.' he thought as he got in line.

A few minutes later he was at the desk. Before he could say anything a paper was thrust into his hands.

"That is the information for your classes, now stop holding up the line." the woman at the desk said.

Looking down at the paper he saw that classes did not start for two hours. Ryuga was either playing a trick on him or really confused. He looked down at the paper again.

**6:00 AM to 8:00 AM: **Kido

**8:00 AM to 10:00 AM: **Zanjutsu

**10:00 AM to 12:00 PM: **Hakuda

**12:00 PM to 1:00 PM: **Lunch

**1:00 PM to 3:00 PM: **Hoho

**3:00 PM to 5:00 PM: **Tactics

**5:00 PM to 7:00 PM: **Study of Hollows

The content of the list was unsurprising; during the first year at the Academy all students took the same classes at different levels and in a different order. Rein noticed that there was no indication of what class level he was in. Checking the back of the paper he saw a bit of writing explaining that the first class was for placement. He decided to go sit down and wait for other people to show up. Looking around he saw Ryuga sitting in a corner looking at his own sheet of paper.

"Hey, what order are your classes in?" Rein asked.

Ryuga just turned his paper around and let Rein read it. They were in the same order as his were.

"Morning!" a voice called. Rein looked over and saw Senna heading over, holding her own paper.

"It would seem that the three of us have the exact same classes." Rein noted, starting to get a bit suspicious.

Rein noticed that the odd feeling had returned, but it was extremely faint. Turning around he saw the man walking in their direction.

"You noticed me, that's impressive." the man said.

"Just barely, the feeling was so faint it was nearly unnoticeable." Rein explained.

"Anyway, I take it from the look on your face that you've noticed that the three of you have the exact same class order." the man paused "Saiden also has the same order but he doesn't seem to be here yet."

"Why did you do that?." Senna asked.

"Saiden, believe it or not, only seems to be willing to talk to you guys, and Ryuga will do better if he has someone to compete with." the man explained "I also informed the teachers about the situation with your Zanpakuto. You don't need to worry about that, I made it seem as insignificant as I could so you will not get much attention."

"Thanks." Rein said as the man walked off again.

"So that is a Zanpakuto." Ryuga stated "How did you manage to get it?"

"Apparently being around so much Shinigami Reiatsu while using a large portion of my own allowed it to form." Rein said, looking perfectly sincere.

"Ok, whatever." Ryuga said as he got up and walked off "You should head to class soon, you have five minutes."

Rein and Senna followed him to their first class.

* * *

During the Kido class they were asked to attempt to cast the first Hado at a block of wood placed on top of a table. Most of the students were able to knock the block off the table. A few students only managed to nudge it a bit.

When Senna's turn came she messed up her aim a bit and hit the block in the side. It flew off at an angle and smashed into the teachers kneecap with a loud noise. After the teacher had finished cursing he told Rein that it was his turn.

When Rein cast the spell the block smashed into the wall and made a large dent. The teacher glared at him, realizing that the damage would be considered his responsibility.

When Saiden's turn came he stepped up and cast the spell without an incantation and the block splintered. Luckily none of the splinters injured anyone, the teacher looked relieved.

Finally it was Ryuga's turn; he cast the spell with the incantation.

Somehow, the spell blew up in his face and singed a large portion of the roof. Ryuga then passed out from using too much of his Reiryoku.

The teacher blinked twice before asking some of the stunned students to do something with him. Rein had no idea what happened; that spell was the first Hado, it should be impossible for it to explode even if you actually tried.

After the Kido class they headed to the Zanjutsu class. Upon entering the teacher passed out an Asauchi to each student.

"In order to determine you levels of ability we will have you fight each other with your Asauchi. You are not allowed to wound anyone, and you will be judged based on how well you fight, no on who wins. You may pick your own opponents, the winners will form one group and losers another. We will keep doing this until each group consists of one person.

Rein was approached by a rather overconfident student. The first thing he did was charge straight at him. Rein ducked under the blade and grabbed his arm, throwing him back.

"Rein, this is not Hakuda class. You must actually use your Zanpakuto." the teacher said in an annoyed voice. He looked over at the teacher, nodded, and drew his sword.

By then the other student had stood up and began to rush at him again. This time Rein swung his blade against the students sword and knocked it out of his hand. The teacher declared him the winner.

The next few fights progressed the same way. Eventually Rein found himself facing Ryuga.

Ryuga was much more skilled than the other students. He repeatedly slashed in a way that forced Rein to block and did not give him any chances to attack. Beginning to get annoyed Rein tapped into his Reiryoku and pushed Ryuga away; Ryuga smirked and jumped at him. Rein, still using his Reiatsu, was able to block the strike and flung Ryuga across the room. The teacher declared Rein the winner.

He looked up and was surprised to see that the only remaining person in the room was Saiden.

When the fight started Saiden ran at Rein, he was not particularly fast. When Rein attempted to block him he nearly dropped his sword from the amount of force Saiden used. Rein found himself being pushed back across the floor.

Rein changed his strategy; he knew that he had no hope of blocking his strikes so he was forced to dodge them. Luckily Saiden was not able to attack or dodge quickly enough to fight Rein. The black haired teen's advantage in speed, added to the insane length of his Zanpakuto, allowed him to slowly wear down Saiden and eventually get through his guard. The battle ended with Rein's Zanpakuto at Saiden's throat.

The Hakuda class had a similar format, the difference being that this would be unarmed combat.

Rein was approached by a student who looked to be fairly strong. When the student ran at him Rein just jumped up, placed a foot on the students head, and shoved him to the ground.

Rein's next fight was a bit more challenging, the student turned out to be very good at controlling his Reiatsu so that leveled the field. As the student slowly moved at him the black haired teen decided he would use speed to win the fight. Gathering his Reiatsu in his feet he launched himself up and landed behind the student. Before the student could turn around Rein had knocked him out.

A little bit later Rein was, once again, facing Ryuga. He fought almost exactly the same as he did before, hitting quickly and hard so as not to give Rein and chance to fight back. It worked for a while until the black haired teen began to find a pattern in his attacks. He seemed to favor a sequence of hits alternating right and left followed by a kick. The next time Ryuga went to kick Rein grabbed his foot and tripped him, placing his foot on Ryuga's neck.

Rein looked at his next opponent. It was Senna. The teacher gave the signal to start, and before Rein cold even raise his hands in defense he was pinned to the wall by his throat. He had lost in under a second.

"What the hell just happened?" Rein asked her as they left the room.

Senna laughed "I won, that's what happened."

"I realized that much. I meant how did you do it." Rein said dryly.

"I used that trick you taught me, I just put as much Reiatsu as I possibly could into my feet and jumped straight at you." Senna explained.

When they reached the cafeteria both of them grabbed a good deal of food to replenish the Reiryoku they had used in the fighting. A bit later Saiden and Ryuga sat down next to them.

"Rein, that was a good fight; I did not expect you to be able to overpower me that easily." Ryuga said.

"You are a hard person to fight though; you don't give me a chance to attack. When we were fighting with our Zanpakuto I just needed to fling you away a bit. When we were unarmed I managed to find a pattern in your attacks. If that pattern had not been there you would have won." Rein paused, glancing at Senna "Of course that may have been a good thing for me." Rein rubbed his neck.

"I was really surprised with Saiden though, he is extremely strong." Senna said "I tried to beat him the same way I won the Hakuda match but he must have seen me coming, he swung at my sword as hard as he could and I ended up smashed into the wall."

"Thanks." Saiden said quietly.

"Ryuga, your Kido abilities were impressive." Rein laughed.

"Shut up." he said flatly.

The group continued to talk, even Saiden joined in a bit. Once lunch was over they headed for the Hoho class.

Upon arriving at the class the teacher brought them out to the same obstacle course they had completed in the entrance exam, the task was to complete it as fast as possible. Every student with the exception of Rein and Senna looked utterly depressed. Senna looked over at Rein and sent him a look saying something along the lines of 'I am going to beat you.' he just smirked back.

When the test started Rein stood still and closed his eyes for a few seconds, wanting to increase his Reiatsu as much as possible. When he opened his eyes they were emitting an intense blue glow.

Not wanting to waste any more time he jumped up to the top of the first obstacle. Many of the students looked up at him, trying to figure out what he was doing. The moment his feet touched something solid he pushed off as hard as he could; focusing his Reiatsu to slightly counter the force of gravity. By doing this he was easily able to jump from place to place and was far ahead of everyone else in the class.

Glancing around he noticed that Senna was nowhere in the crowd.

"Looking for me?" a voice called from behind him.

Rein looked back and laughed, she was a few meters behind him. When he returned his attention to the course he realized that he was headed directly at the side of the final obstacle. Panicking, he started focusing his Reiatsu into his feet and released it all at once. This did succeed in moving him out of the way, but he had not had enough time to direct the energy correctly and he was sent high over his destination. Rein flipped over in midair and once again focused his Reiatsu and pushed himself onto the platform. At the same time Senna had landed on the platform herself. They tied for first place.

"Don't you think changing your path in midair was a bit overkill?" she asked, seeming annoyed.

"Maybe, but I didn't like the idea of smashing head first into something again." he countered.

After they had climbed down they walked back over to where Ryuga and Saiden were standing.

"Are you good at everything?" Ryuga asked Rein dryly.

"Well, I don't know much about Hollows." he responded.

Ryuga looked at him blankly and started walking to the Tactics class, the rest of the group followed.

The test for the tactics class took the form of a series of a game of chess, similar to the Zanjutsu and Hakuda classes the students played against each other to determine who was best. Rein had never played the game before, but the rules seemed simple enough. Looking around the room he saw Senna reading the guide intently, Saiden looked distracted, and Ryuga was scratching his head while holding the guide upside down. Some of the students were smirking, clearly having played the game previously.

When the teacher saw how many of the students were completely inexperienced in the game he let them play a few practice matches. Rein lost the first two matches but began to win after he got the hang of it. By the time the actual matches started he was fairly confident in his ability.

His first opponent was Ryuga, he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He first attempted to move Rein's pieces. The match was over within five turns, Ryuga had managed to put his king in checkmate and Rein barely had to do anything. The next few matches were not as easy, they were very close calls but he always managed to pull through.

When the final match came Rein was up against a teen from a noble clan, he was very intelligent and clearly had a lot of experience with the game. The match lasted a long time, neither player was able to gain the upper hand. The teacher actually had to call off the match because time ran out. Each player still had more than half their pieces in plat.

"Figures you would be smart too." Ryuga muttered.

The group then proceeded to the final class of the day, Hollow studies.

As it turned out there really were no levels for that class. The teacher just handed out a simple survey to see how much they knew already. After they had completed the survey the teacher explained that normally the students would have Saturday and Sunday off. This was an exception because it took time to organize the classes and they needed to start it as soon as they could.

"Hey Rein, you up for a rematch?" Ryuga asked after the class had ended.

"Sure, I will go find the teacher." Rein answered.

After several minutes of searching the group found the Zanjutsu instructor.

"Would it be ok if we were to do some practice fighting?" Ryuga asked.

"Sure, just don't injure each other." he responded.

The group made its way over to the field where Rein had formed his Zanpakuto.

As soon as the fight started Ryuga ran at Rein, who stepped to the side. Not giving Ryuga a chance to start attacking Rein went on the offensive, using the length of his blade to maintain distance between them. Eventually Ryuga began to push back and put Rein on the defensive again. Before long he was too close for Rein to be able to use his Zanpakuto effectively. Deciding to try something different Rein pointed his finger at Ryuga.

"Hado number one, Sho." Rein said calmly. Ryuga was sent backwards and Rein resumed his offensive.

"Hey, that wasn't fair!" Ryuga shouted.

"When did we agree not to use kido?" Rein asked with a smirk.

Rein locked his blade against Ryuga's and pointed at his blade. "Hado number one, Sho." he said again.

Ryuga's blade was sent flying out of his hand and, without pausing, Rein aimed his blade at Ryuga's chest.

"Looks like I win." Rein said, lowering his sword "Good fight."

"Stupid Kido." he responded.

"Rein, fight me now!" Senna said excitedly.

"Sure." he responded.

When the fight started Senna attempted to pull the same trick that she had during the Hakuda fight. Rein, expecting it, ducked under the blade and jumped away. Senna jumped at him and started to attack, her attacks came in fast chains, a set of six to twenty extremely fast attacks followed by a pause. The pause usually lasted around a second. She took full advantage of that second, using it to dodge around him and force him to move. Eventually Rein realized that trying to block all the attacks would not work, he needed to dodge and attack while she was attacking. Soon they had their blades locked. At the same time both of them pointed at the other.

"Hado number one, Sho." they both said. The Kido collided in midair and blasted both of them back across the field.

Senna started laughing uncontrollably as she ran at Rein and tackled him in another extremely enthusiastic hug.

"What the heck?" Rein said, confused.

"I win." she stated.

Rein then felt the blade of her Zanpakuto pressed against the back of his neck.

"Yes, you do win." he laughed.

Saiden and Ryuga looked on with strange expressions, trying to figure out whether or not they should be watching them.

Senna let go of Rein and both of them sheathed their Zanpakuto, the other two members of the group walked over.

"Anyone up for some food?" Ryuga asked.

"Sure." Rein said "I have some money saved up, we can go and eat in the Seireitei if you want."

Senna looked exited "That sounds like fun. But I don't want to make you pa-"

Rein cut her off "Then we are going, and I **am** paying."

* * *

Around an hour later the four teens were looking around in the section of Seireitei that Academy students were allowed to visit, trying to find a place to eat.

Eventually the group stumbled upon a fairly small restaurant and went inside. They were seated almost immediately; the only available place was a booth next to the window. Senna immediately called dibs on the window spot and Rein took a seat next to her.

Saiden, of all people, got into an argument with Ryuga over who got the other window seat, they actually walked outside to fight for it. When they came back in Saiden looked unfazed while Ryuga came in with wide eyes and an open mouth, it was priceless.

Within a few minutes they had placed their orders and they began to chat about the tests. Rein had no real opinion on any of them nor did Senna. Saiden had hated the Hoho testing and Ryuga had hated the Kido and Tactics tests.

Soon thereafter the food arrived and they all ate as though they were starving as promised Rein paid for all the food. The teens then walked out the door.

"Well, it sure has been a while since I've seen Academy students here, they almost always just eat at the Academy." a voice said from behind them.

They turned and saw a fairly tall person with long white hair and green eyes. He was wearing a captain's haori.

"U-Ukitake-taicho." Ryuga stammered.

Ukitake just smiled at them "What years are you?"

Rein, seemingly the only one who was not having a panic attack, responded "We are in our first year."

"Really? Your Zanpakuto is remarkably unique considering that you must have gotten it today." the captain observed.

"I actually formed it independently, apparently being exposed to so much Shinigami Reiatsu after using up such a large portion of my own had some kind of effect on me, it caused me to form this blade and also created a Zanpakuto spirit in my inner world." Rein explained.

"Ah, that makes sense." Ukitake stated "Ok, I am going to get some food before Shunsui finds me, I am not in the mood for drinking today."

"Nice meeting you." the group said as they walked away.

"Wow, I never expected to meet a captain here, that was really lucky." Ryuga stated.

"Yeah, Rein you have awesome timing." Senna said.

The group laughed as they headed back to the Academy.

"Hey, Saiden would you like to fight?" Ryuga asked as they passed the field "You are the only person here who I haven't fought yet.

"Sure." he responded.

Senna and Rein sat off to the side and watched. Ryuga started off the fight by unleashing a unyielding chain of attacks on Saidens blade. Rein chuckled, knowing from experience that it was a terrible idea. Saiden simply swung his blade one time and sent Ryuga across the field. Not one to give up so easily Ryuga ran at Saiden again and started to attack even more quickly, circling around Saiden in the process. It seemed he had learned a bit from Senna's fighting style. Saiden decided to grip his Zanpakuto in both hands and swing down as hard as he could, Ryuga's sword went flying across the field and Ryuga looked stunned. He was extremely lucky to be unharmed.

Ryuga ran across and retrieved his sword "Rematch?" he asked.

"Sure." Saiden replied smiling.

The two observers were shocked, Saiden was enjoying the fight.

Rein glanced at Senna and saw her yawning.

"We are going to head back, have fun with your fighting." he said as he stood up and started walking with Senna back to her building.

"I am surprised Ukitake believed the cover story." she said.

"He didn't, he saw straight through it but he didn't want to call me on it because he didn't know if I had told anyone else the real reason. From what I have heard he is not the kind of person that would force an answer out of someone." Rein explained.

"And you could tell all of that just from the few seconds we were speaking to him?" Senna asked, looking a bit unconvinced.

"I am very perceptive." he responded quietly, so quietly that she barely heard him.

The pair soon arrived at Senna's building.

"See you tomorrow." Senna said as she turned.

"Yeah, good night." Rein responded.

Senna went inside the building and Rein stood still for a few moments.

"Hey, look up!" a voice yelled from above him as he turned to leave.

"Wha-" Rein started to say as he looked up. Senna had jumped from the balcony attached to her room and about to land on top of him.

Senna just laughed like a total maniac as she collided with Rein, knocking them both to the ground.

The pair slowly got up from the ground, before Rein could say anything at all Senna walked closer, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him. Before he even registered what had happened she had ran back inside.

'What just happened?' he asked himself, he would go and ask her but boys were not allowed in the girls buildings and he didn't think Senna would appreciate him getting both of them kicked out. She ran in knowing that he could not follow, if she wanted to talk she would have stayed.

Rein just walked back to his room, completely confused.

When he got back to his room he didn't even bother to take his Zanpakuto off his back before lying down on his bed and staring up at the ceiling, still in shock.

He had been lying there for what must have been an hour when Ryuga arrived at the room.

"You look like you are in shock or something, what happened?" he asked.

Rein just grunted.

"Ok, good talk." he said before lying down on his own bed.

Rein fell asleep soon after that.

* * *

Words: 4017

AN: Hope you liked that chapter. I just updated summary and got rid of the 'only hints of romance in beginning' part, I changed my mind a bit, as you can see.

Sorry this chapter took so long to write, I was distracted by someone during school and barely managed to get any writing done at all.

Good news though, I am on spring break now, I might be able to manage a chapter a day for the next few days. No promises though.

When I say they are using Hoho, I do not mean Shunpo, they have not yet learned that. They are just using their Reiatsu to improve their ability to move.

SEND ME YOUR OCs, I need teachers to teach these people, they need names, and appearances, and backstories, and personalities. I don't care how odd the idea is at this point, just send me your ideas. I also need some kind of antagonist, if you have an idea feel free to tell me.

Review, please. It actually does help me get better. Most of the reviews I have gotten have been positive, that is a good sign I think, but if there is anything I can improve on let me know. I can handle it don't worry.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Here is the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach.

Damaged Souls

Chapter 5: The weekend

* * *

**Day: **Sunday, the 20th

**Month: **August

**Year:** 1428

**Time:** 7:00 AM

**Location:** Rein and Ryuga's room

"Rein, get up or I will eat breakfast without you." a voice said.

Rein quickly got up and saw Ryuga, once again about to leave the room.

"Head down without me, I will be there in a second." Rein replied, getting out of bed.

After he had put on his uniform he remembered what had happened with Senna, he really needed to talk with her.

Soon after that he arrived in the cafeteria, once he had gotten his food he walked over to where Saiden, Ryuga, and Senna were already sitting.

"Morning." he said as he sat down.

They all responded with the same.

"Can I ask you guys for a favor?" Ryuga asked "Would you mind helping me out with Kido?"

"Sure, after we finish eating you guys head to the field and I will go grab some targets." Rein said.

They finished eating a few minutes after and they headed out. As Rein was walking he realized that he had absolutely no idea where he could get targets, he decided to find a Kido teacher and ask.

"Where are all the Kido teachers hiding?" he said out loud after a while of unsuccessful searching.

"Try looking right next to you." a voice said. Rein turned and saw the teacher who had given the test standing next to him "So what do you need help with?"

"I am looking for some targets, a friend asked if we would help him practice." he explained.

"Ah, here let me get some for you." the teacher replied.

"Thanks." Rein said.

Soon he was heading to the field with twenty targets.

When he arrived he walked over to the far side of the field, set the targets up in a line, and headed back to where his friends were waiting.

"Just don't use every bit of your Reiatsu when you cast the spell, considering what happened last time your issue is not a lack of power." he heard Saiden explaining.

"Ok, I will try it." Ryuga said. He pointed his finger at one of the targets and cast the spell with the incantation.

It blew up; all the grass within five meters of him was singed.

"Try concentrating more and using less Reiatsu." Senna said, brushing the ashes off of herself.

Ryuga pointed his finger at the same target, the rest of the group took a few steps back, Ryuga cast the spell.

It blew up again, this time the grass was not singed in a circle though, it formed a streached out oval that extended eight meters in front of him and around three meters to either side.

"That was better, give it another try. Use even less Reiatsu." Rein offered.

Ryuga took aim for the third time and cast the spell.

There was no explosion, the target fell over.

"Wow! I actually did it!" Ryuga said excitedly.

"Nice." Saiden complimented.

"Good work." Senna said.

Ryuga continued to practice the spell on the targets until he had knocked them all over. Rein headed out to set them up again.

"I am going to give the fourth Hado a try." Saiden stated when Rein got back.

He took aim at one of the targets and cast the spell, a bright blue bolt of energy pierced through the target.

"Awesome, I am going to give it a try too." Rein said, taking aim.

Rein cast the spell successfully and an equally bright bolt destroyed a second target.

They continued casting the spell for a while, eventually Ryuga decided to join in. He would aim at the same target that Rein was aiming at and knock it over with Sho, making Reins spell miss. Soon Senna was also taking aim at the targets with Byakurai.

An hour later all the targets had been destroyed.

"I am getting hungry, let's go get some lunch." Saiden suggested.

The rest of the group agreed and they headed off to the cafeteria.

After they had finished their food they started walking back to the field.

"I need to go grab a book from my room, you guys go on ahead." Senna said. She ran off before anyone could say something.

When the group had arrived at the field Ryuga looked at Rein.

"Ok, now tell me what happened." he said.

"What?" Rein said calmly.

"I am not as stupid as I look, I can tell something is wrong. What happened with Senna?" he asked again.

"I have no intention of answering that." Rein said as he turned to walk away.

"Bakudo number one, Sai." Saiden said, trapping Rein.

"You can leave when you explain it to us." Saiden stated.

"If I tell you, you will **not** tell anyone." Rein said, using his most threatening voice.

"Of course." Ryuga agreed "Now talk."

"Fine." Rein paused and took a breath "Last night, when I walked her back to her room, she kissed me and ran inside before I could say something. She seems to have been avoiding me ever since."

"What are you going to do about it?" Ryuga asked.

"I am not sure." Rein answered.

"Fair enough. Don't worry, we will keep this a secret." Ryuga assured.

"Hah." the group turned and saw a group of students coming over.

"They may not be telling anyone, but I will be sure to inform everyone about your little girlfriend." the leader of the group spoke up.

Upon hearing this Rein spiked his Reiatsu as high as he could, breaking the Bakudo. "You will not tell anyone." he said in a dangerously calm voice.

"What are you going to do about it? You want to try and fight all of us at once?" the student laughed.

"Sounds like a fair fight to me." Rein responded before running at them, reaching for his Zanpakuto.

"Bakudo number four, Hainawa." Saiden said, aiming at Rein.

The spell succeeded in binding Rein, no matter how much he spiked his Reiatsu it was simply too strong for him to escape.

"What the heck Saiden?" Rein said, glaring at the white haired teen.

"You are going to get yourself into trouble if you continue, I will let you go once you calm down." he replied.

"Looks like even your friends want everyone to know." the leader of the group taunted, turning to leave.

The group left the field, laughing.

Saiden undid the spell and looked at Rein.

"I am going to go calm down, please don't bother me." he said as he drew his Zanpakuto. The black haired teen walked into the forest. He made his way to the clearing that was nearly identical to where he used to live. When he got there he sat down and entered Jinzen.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes and looked around. He saw his Zanpakuto spirit standing with his back to the teen, staring up at the moon.

"Hello Rein." the spirit said without turning.

"Hi." the teen replied.

"Why did you come here?" the spirit questioned.

"I don't know, I just felt like I needed to come." Rein answered.

"Well, I guess I can let you in on a little secret." the spirit paused "Once you are able to win against me in a fight I will tell you my name."

"So this is a test of skill? You are my Zanpakuto so you possess the same amount of Reiryoku as me." the teen asked.

"That is correct." his Zanpakuto replied.

Rein drew his sword, the spirit did the same.

The spirit ran at him and began to chain attacks together. Similar to Ryuga, the spirit gave him no chance to attack. The difference was in power, not only were these strikes coming in fast, they had a massive amount of force behind them. Rein simply could not keep blocking at that speed, he tried to put distance between them but the spirit was faster than him as well. The attacks continued and soon Rein was unable to continue holding his blade, he dropped it and it was sent flying away, landing upright in the sand.

"It would appear you still have a ways to go if you desire to learn my name." the spirit commented.

Rein fell to his knees without responding. He was shocked that he had lost so quickly.

"Do not lose your confidence because of this; you will be able to beat me eventually. All you need to do is keep training. Try to train against multiple opponents at once, challenge people that are better than you. That is how you improve." his Zanpakuto recommended "It also helps if you have real motivation."

"Thanks for the advice; I guess I will go back now." Rein said as he faded.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes; the first thing he saw was Senna, sitting directly in front of him.

"Hey." he said quietly.

She looked up "Hey." a pause "I heard what happened."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." he responded.

"It isn't your fault, from what Ryuga said they forced you into telling them, you did not have much of a choice. The other people managing to hear it was not your fault, that is on Ryuga for not noticing them when he asked you." she looked down "If anything, this entire situation is my fault. If I had not kissed you then this wouldn't have happe-"

"Ok, stop there. You are saying that you should have been able to see this coming? Give me a break, if it is anyone's fault it's the people who decided to listen in." he said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Senna smiled "So, how was your inner world?"

"Rainy, as usual. My Zanpakuto said I will get Shikai once I am able to beat him in a fight. He beat me before I could even get a single attack in."

Senna laughed "I suppose we should head back, we don't want them jumping to conclusions."

"I guess not." Rein said, standing up and extending his hand. Senna took his hand and allowed him to help her up. As soon as she was standing Rein pulled her closer to him and kissed her.

"But I, you, didn't, what?" she stammered.

Rein just smiled at her and they headed back to the field.

When they got back Rein pointed at Saiden.

"Let's have a rematch, I want to get better." he said.

"Sure." he replied.

Both of them drew their Zanpakuto and Saiden ran at him. This time Rein blocked the strike and struck back, Saiden barely managed to get his blade up in time to block. Rein was completely overpowering Saiden, whenever he did get a chance to attack Rein blocked and countered.

"Ok, I'm joining in, Saiden needs a hand." Ryuga said, running at Rein.

The battle became much more difficult after that, Ryuga would go on the offensive and just as Rein prepared to attack he would be forced to block an attack from Saiden. Rein jumped back and swung his blade in a line in order to lock with both of their blades at once. As soon as they began to force his blade back Rein pointed at the back of his own blade.

"Hado number one, Sho." he said. The force of the spell gave him enough power to shove both of their blades out of their hands.

"Wow, do I need to help out too?" Senna asked, drawing her Zanpakuto and running at Rein.

The other two quickly retrieved their blades and rejoined the fight. This time Rein was forced to use both Kido and his blade to even stand a chance. He found many creative ways to use Sho, increasing the power of his own attacks, aiming at the ground to send dust into the air, and aiming it at himself to force his body to dodge in unnatural ways. He also used Sai to temporarily keep one person out of the fight. He was able to hold his own for around fifteen minutes before his Reiryoku began to run dry.

"Excellent work Rein, if you keep at this you will be able to beat me in no time." his Zanpakuto told him.

Senna, noticing the distracted look on his face, ran at him and used Sho to disarm him. She wrapped him in a hug.

"I win again, but you have gotten much better." she said, smiling.

Rein smiled back and said "I am nearly out of Reiryoku, I will probably end up passing out s-" he passed out.

Ryuga and Saiden walked over, panting.

"When did he get so good?" Ryuga wondered.

"He has a goal now; as soon as he is able to beat his Zanpakuto spirit in a fight he will obtain his Shikai." Senna explained.

"Shikai? Seriously?" Ryuga said, stunned.

"Yeah, but based on what he said about his fight with his Zanpakuto it will not be any time soon. He lost without being able to do anything at all." Senna stated.

"What should we do with him?" Saiden asked, pointing at the unconscious Rein.

"You guys go get dinner, I will wait here for him to wake up." Senna said.

"You sure? You will probably miss dinner." Ryuga said.

"Yeah, you guys just go eat." she encouraged.

Saiden and Ryuga left for the cafeteria.

An hour later Rein woke up. He looked around and saw Senna sitting in the grass, reading a book.

"Hey." he said, sitting up.

"Hey." she replied, closing her book and walking over.

Rein stood up "Where did Saiden and Ryuga go?"

"They went to eat around an hour ago." she responded "I decided to wait here for you to wake up."

"Why, we probably missed dinner by now." he asked.

"Yeah, because leaving you here, alone and unconscious, was a better idea." she said sarcastically.

"Let's go." he said.

"Huh, where?" she said, confused.

"We are going to Seireitei to get some food." he answered, starting to walk.

"It's fine, I can wait until breakfast." she protested.

"Maybe you can, but I used up all my Reiryoku, I need to eat right now." he explained.

"Right, I better come along to make sure you don't get into trouble." she said, running to catch up.

"Of course." he said mockingly.

The pair walked into Seireitei and began to look for a place to get some food. Soon they found the same place that they had went last night. They went in and got some food.

"You still hungry?" Senna asked playfully.

"Nope, I can actually think now. The food reall- Oh no." he looked horrified.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

Rein grabbed her hand and began running back in the direction of the Academy "Think about this for a second, we are in a city, and it is probably around 11:00 at night. This city is filled with highly trained and armed people, right about now I would bet that around a quarter of those people are drunk."

"Oh." Senna said simply "Yeah, let's get back to the Academy."

"Hold on, don't leave just yet!" a voice yelled.

"I wonder, would this have happened had I not said anything." Rein asked before turning and yelling back at the person "What is it?"

"What business do a couple of Academy students have in Seireitei?" the person asked loudly.

"We were hungry so we got food." Rein explained calmly, hoping to avoid a conflict.

"Ah, took your girlfriend on a date did you?" the man said, stepping closer.

Rein kept silent.

"Can you fight?" the man asked.

"Not yet." Rein lied.

Before he finished the sentence the man was in front of him, drawing his Zanpakuto.

"Why don't you just run along, no need for you to get hurt." he said.

Rein took Senna's hand and turned to leave.

"Nice try, the girl is going to come with me to get a few more drinks." the man laughed, shoving Rein away "Just run along now and there is no need for me to hurt you." he looked at Senna "Come along with me now." he knocked her out with his elbow.

"Now you did it." Rein said calmly, letting his Reiryoku flow out freely.

"Bakudo number nine, Horin." Rein said, using the rope to catch Senna before she fell and pull her over to him.

"Nice trick kid. But I don't think you can beat me." the man said.

Rein glared at him, his eyes glowing an extremely bright blue.

"Well, you certainly got the mean look down. Now you just need the abilities to back it up." the man laughed.

"Look, I will give you one last chance. Just run along and I will not hurt you." the man said, putting on a kind expression.

Rein extended his hand so it almost touched the man's face.

"Hado number sixty-three, Raikoho." Rein said.

Unsurprisingly, the spell exploded. But that was Rein's plan. He needed something to buy him time and allow him to get away with Senna. An explosion from a spell that he had no hope of controlling was perfect.

He quickly grabbed Senna and started running off as fast as he could. The man appeared directly in front of him.

"That was creative kid, I will give you that, but it's about time we end this." the man told him.

Rein gently placed Senna on the ground and drew his Zanpakuto. All he needed to do was hold him off until someone came to find the cause of the explosion.

"Bakudo number four, Hainawa." Rein said, using the spell to immobilize the man. It held for a few seconds before the man broke out of it.

"You are going to have to do better than that." the man stated.

The man swung at him and Rein blocked the attack. The man gripped his blade in both hands and swung his blade horizontally; the teen ducked under and tried to counter. The man used Shunpo and got away.

Rein looked around and was unable to find the man; he then looked up and saw a blade about to stab through his skull. He ducked and slashed above him. When the man landed on the ground there was blood flowing from his hand.

"Now, you have made me really angry." the man said.

"Smash, Ryuketsu no kidzuchi." the man said.

The man's Zanpakuto transformed into a massive hammer, the head was around two thirds the size of Rein.

"Good luck standing up to my Shikai, I am going to smash you and then I ca-".

"Shut. Up." Rein cut him off "I don't want to hear you tell me about it, if you are going to smash me then actually do it!"

"Very well." the man said, swinging the hammer at Rein.

The teen raised his sword to block it but found himself skidding across the ground. The man then swung again and knocked Rein into the wall, breaking a large hole in it.

"That should take care of him." the man said, walking over to Senna.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes. He was in his inner world.

"I take it you want to fight me again?" the teen asked his Zanpakuto.

"Yes, I believe you will be able to win this time." the spirit answered.

Rein charged at the spirit, aiming to impale him. The spirit jumped out of the way. Rein continued to attack the spirit, repeatedly slashing in different directions as speeds he never would have dreamed of a few hours ago.

"You have improved, Rein." his Zanpakuto paused "But not enough, you still do not stand a chance."

The spirit jumped into the air and landed behind Rein, slashing him across the back.

"You are pathetic, I thought you would be a match for me this time, you certainly have enough motivation. I guess you just cannot beat me." the spirit taunted.

"Shut up!" Rein yelled, trying to get back up.

"Pathetic." the spirit said, walking over and stabbing Rein in the chest "You are not worthy of my power."

The Zanpakuto kicked Rein away sending him flying a good fifty meters into the air. Rein hit the ground hard, creating a small crater in the sand.

"You are hopeless; there is no point in continuing this fight. Because of your weakness that man is going to get to do whatever he wants with Senna." the spirit turned away and started walking "You are a failure."

Before the spirit could figure out what had occurred a blade erupted from his chest. The Zanpakuto smiled.

"I told you that you had enough motivation." a pause "My name is-"

* * *

The man picked Senna up and flung her over his shoulder.

"Wait." a voice called from the destroyed building.

"You're alive, impressive." the man put Senna back down "I suppose it would be rude of me to not finish you off."

He ran at the building and swung the hammer down, destroying the remains of the roof. When the smoke cleared the black haired teen was nowhere to be seen.

"I guess I swung a bit too hard, there is nothing left of him." the man laughed.

It was at this point that Senna regained consciousness.

"Rein is dead?" she asked, too shocked to even think.

"Yep, I killed your boyfriend." the man walked back over to her and swung her over his shoulder again. She was too shocked to resist.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." a calm voice said.

There was an explosion of blue Reiryoku, in front of the man stood Rein, holding a very different sword.

The blade was perfectly straight and sharp on both sides, down the middle of the blade there was a one centimeter wide slit. Where the hilt met the blade there was a ring two centimeters in diameter. Coming off of the ring at a forty-five degree angle were two guards that extended over the hilt. At the end of the blade there was a V shape, forking out. The blade was pure black and also even longer, one-hundred-eighty-eight centimeters; the hilt maintained its length of thirty-two centimeters. A total length of two-hundred-twenty centimeters, significantly longer than Rein was tall. Rein held the blade in one hand, with his index finger through the ring in the hilt.

"I would recommend putting the girl down." Rein suggested, leveling his Zanpakuto at the man's chest.

"I will take you up on that offer. It is a pain to fight while holding something." the man said and he put Senna down.

"Let us begin." Rein said calmly.

The man raised his Reiatsu and charged at Rein.

A bright blue glow formed inside the slit of the blade. There was a series of flashes and the man was sent flying back.

Rein spun the blade around his finger and it returned to its sealed form, he sheathed the blade.

"Rein!" Senna said, running over to him. Rein wrapped his arms around her and held her for a few minutes.

At this point several Shinigami Shunpo-ed into the area.

"What happened here?" one of the Shinigami asked, looking at Rein.

Before he could answer a Shinigami stepped out of the shadows, going by the grey cloak over his uniform he was a member of the Patrol Corps.

"That will not be necessary, I saw everything that happened. These two should be free to return to the Academy."

"Thank you." Rein said as he walked away, still holding Senna.

The pair soon reached the field at the Academy.

"I thought you were dead." Senna said quietly.

"Don't worry, I am perfectly fine. Just a few bruises and scrapes." he said.

Senna started to cry a bit. Rein pulled her up and kissed her.

"I am terrible, I was so busy freaking out that I never even congratulated you." she said sadly.

"Huh?" Rein asked, genuinely confused.

"Congratulations on getting Shikai, Rein." she smiled.

Rein smiled back and kissed her again.

"As much as I would like to keep doing this until classes start I really think some sleep would be good for both of us." Rein stated.

"I suppose that might be a good idea." she replied playfully.

Rein walked her back to her room "Good night Senna."

"Night Rein" she said, turning and walking inside.

Rein walked back to his room.

When he opened the door he was surprised to see Ryuga sitting in a chair reading a book on Zanjutsu.

"You're back." he stated.

"Nice observation." Rein replied dryly.

"What took so long? It is almost midnight." Ryuga questioned.

"Senna and I went to Seireitei to get some food, we got caught up talking." Rein responded.

"You took a girl around the city at midnight, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how badly that could have turned out?" Ryuga practically yelled.

"I guess it didn't cross my mind, I was really hungry" Rein offered "We can continue this conversation in the morning, I am too tired to argue right now."

"Fine." Ryuga said.

Rein lay down on the bed and fell asleep within a few seconds.

* * *

Words: 4169

AN: There, Rein has Shikai now. Too bad I didn't describe the abilities at all yet. I guess you have to wait for that part. I have a feeling some people will think that it was a bit too soon for him to get Shikai, well Ichigo obtained his Shikai a day or two after meeting his Zanpakuto spirit so I think a week is reasonable as well. From what I can tell, the only reason it takes a while for a normal Shinigami to obtain it is because the Asauchi takes a while to actually take the form of their Zanpakuto spirit. Rein started off with a fully formed spirit so he skipped a large chunk of the process. Just like Ichigo and Urahara skilled a large part of the process in obtaining Bankai.

I am good on OCs for now but feel free to suggest pairings. In case you are the most unobservant person in the history of mankind the first definite pairing in this story is going to be Rein x Senna.

**Translations:**

Ryuketsu no kidzuchi: Bloody Mallet


	6. Chapter 6

AN: The time this happens is hard to define as it is occurring in Rein's inner world, all you need to know is that Rein is dreaming and this takes place directly after the events of last chapter. There is no time gap.

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach.

Damaged Souls

Chapter 6: Sasu Yona Danretsu

* * *

**Day:** N/A

**Month: **N/A

**Year: **N/A

**Time:** N/A

**Location:** Rein's inner world

Rein opened his eyes; he was in his inner world. Sasu Yona Danretsu was standing a few meters in front of him.

"Hello again Rein." the spirit said.

"Hey." he replied.

"I have brought you here in order to teach you about my Shikai. It would be dangerous for you to be walking around with a Shikai and have no idea what its abilities are. You are lucky the power did not cause significant damage to both of us when you used it last night." the spirit paused "In order to teach you we will be fighting again."

Both of them drew their weapons.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." Rein said, and the blade shifted into its Shikai form.

"Bite." the spirit said and his own Shikai activated as well. There was a difference between the forms though, unlike Rein's the spirits sword had a few meters of chain attached to the bottom of the hilt. At the end of the chain there was a Y shaped blade.

"Why is yours different?" Rein asked.

"That will be explained at a later time. Right now you need to learn the most basic ability of our Zanpakuto. It is the basis for every other ability that it has." the sprit answered "Before we start fighting remember, your goal is to learn the ability. We are not going to fight at full strength, just focus on learning from what I do."

With that Sasu Yona Danretsu ran at him, letting the chain drag behind him. Rein raised his own blade to block and nearly dropped his sword. The attack was much stronger than he expected.

"It seems you have noticed one of the more odd aspects of this blade. Because of the forked shape at the end of the blade the center of mass is actually located at the tip of the sword. Even a light attack will have tremendous force behind it." the spirit elaborated.

Rein nodded and adjusted his stance slightly. If the center of mass was located at the tip of the blade then fighting in close quarters would be nearly impossible. Rein swung the blade as the spirit came closer to him. It felt like he was swinging a rope with a weight tied to the end. In response to this the spirit swung his own blade at the ground and launched himself up, leaving the blade below him. The spirit slid his hand down onto the chain and used it to entangle Rein's blade.

"Good, you are improving." the spirit encouraged before pulling on the chain and returning his blade to his hand. The spirit grabbed the blade at the end of the chain and began to spin it over his head. Sasu Yona Danretsu released his hold on the blade entirely and it went flying at Rein. Not backing down Rein focused on it and began to focus in on the chain. He swung his sword at the spinning mass of blades and hooked his blade through one of the links of the chain, the blades then whipped around and the chain unhooked itself from Rein's blade. The bladed mass then went flying off at an angle.

The spirit laughed and launched himself after the blades. When he neared them he reached out and caught the blade by the hilt. Sasu Yona Danretsu touched down on the ground and ran at the teen again. The spirit switched the large blade with the Y shaped one and let it drag across the ground behind him. The spirit used the smaller blade to attack Rein at close range, forcing Rein to find a way to use the odd blade against an extremely close opponent.

Rein got an idea; he flipped the blade over so he was holding it backhand. Doing this allowed him to attack at short distances much more easily. He changed his fighting style to adjust, turning his body to the side slightly and holding the blade diagonally across his chest. When the spirit attack Rein used the hilt to block the attack before flicking the blade up and nearly cutting the spirit in half. Rein continued to fight while holding the blade backhand and found that it allowed for a much more aggressive fighting style.

Sasu Yona Danretsu soon switched to long range attacks, holding the end of the chain and swinging it around. Rein could not get close at all and flipped his blade over again to hold it in a normal way.

"That chain is getting annoying." the teen said.

His Zanpakuto smirked and launched an overhead attack at Rein; he jumped out of the way. The spirit swung again and Rein attempted to block it, it didn't work at all and the blade almost decapitated him. The oddly shaped blade would not work for conventional blocking against those sorts of attacks. Deciding to try something different he waited for the spirit to attack again. When the blade was near him Rein swung his own blade at it and knocked it out of the way. Using the opening Rein charged at his Zanpakuto and swung. The spirit blocked it with the smaller blade.

"Excellent work, you have figured out ways to fight at ranges that your weapon is not designed for." the spirit said "Now we need to work on your ability to fight at a more common range."

"How will we do that?" Rein asked.

The spirit sealed his blade and sheathed it "Simple, I will attack you with this." as he spoke a normal Katana formed in his hand. The weapon was nearly identical to the sealed form of his Zanpakuto but significantly smaller. The blade was eighty-four centimeters long and the hilt was twenty-six centimeters; the total length was one-hundred-ten centimeters.

"This blade is around the same size as an average Zanpakuto." Sasu Yona Danretsu explained.

The spirit charged at Rein and began to attack; the range was a bit too close but was still well within his comfort range. Using what he had learned Rein blocked the attacks with his own attacks instead of simply moving the blade into the path of an attack. The spirit moved to make a stab but Rein swung his blade and knocked it off course. Not pausing, Sasu Yona Danretsu attempted a vertical swing only for Rein to knock his blade away yet again. Rein made use of the opening and ran up to the spirit, leveling the blade at him with his neck in the forked part.

"Bite." the spirit said, activating his Shikai.

Rein jumped away as the spirit swung the chain at him again. The spirit dashed at him and swung at Rein's chest, he jumped up and swung down at the blade. He then landed with his feet on the blade and made an attack on Sasu Yona Danretsu. The spirit responded by pulling on the chain and swinging it at the teen. Rein ducked under the attack and back flipped away from the second attack. Before he landed he stabbed his blade down and used it to shove himself to the side, just in time to avoid another attack from the chain.

Sasu Yona Danretsu decided to increase the difficulty and grabbed the short blade in his other hand. He once again charged at the teen, opening with a diagonal slash from the large blade. Rein swung at the attack and successfully blocked it. The spirit then spun the large blade around his finger and the chain entangled Rein's blade. Rein smirked.

"Hado number eleven, Tsuzuri Raiden." he said, an electrical current ran through the Rein's sword, the chain entangling it, and then into the spirit.

Sasu Yona Danretsu dropped his sword, shocked in both senses of the word.

"Impressive. I think it is time we teach you how to fight off long range attacks." as the spirit spoke a series of blue orbs formed around his hand. His Zanpakuto jumped away and swung his hand in Rein's direction.

The orbs flew at the teen and he jumped away to dodge. He looked up and saw another set heading directly at him, he dodged again. He looked around and this time he saw four sets coming at him from different directions. Rein could not dodge them in time so he swung at them, hoping that his blade was long enough to keep him out of the explosion. As it turned out the orbs didn't explode, they just got batted away and flew back at him. The teen saw another set heading at him and slashed them. He kept this up until there were a total of sixty sets in the air; he was barely able to keep up with them at this point.

"I think you get the idea, I doubt you will ever need to block sixty sets of eight projectiles at once." Sasu Yona Danretsu said. The orbs vanished.

"Watch me closely, this is the special ability of our Shikai." the spirit said.

He leveled the blade at Rein and a blue glow appeared in the slit. Without warning there was a series of flashes and Rein felt something fly by his head. He turned around and saw four clouds of sand behind him.

"Focus your Reiatsu into your blade until it begins to glow. Then release it in small quantities." the spirit explained.

Rein nodded and aimed his blade off into the distance. He began to gather Reiatsu into the blade and a blue glow formed. As he released a bit of the Reiatsu there was a flash of blue and a loud sound. Rein caught a glimpse of something blue heading off in the direction his blade was aiming.

"Good, now try again but release it four times." the spirit instructed.

Rein once again leveled his blade and gathered Reiatsu into it. He released a small amount of energy four times. Four flashes appeared and four clouds of sand appear where he was aiming.

"Perfect, now we will fight." the spirit said and he vanished.

Rein looked around, trying to find him when he saw a flash in the distance. Realizing that this was one of the attacks he jumped away and pointed his blade in that direction. He fired off four shots and quickly changed his position. He caught a bit of motion and spotted his Zanpakuto running while looking around. Rein aimed and fired at him, changing position again, just in time as well, he saw a flash and felt something hit his blade. Judging by the distance these blasts were traveling at an insane speed.

"Nice work." a voice said from directly behind Rein. He turned and saw his Zanpakuto spirit standing behind him.

"The name of the ability is Hyo no Danretsu, it fires small blasts of Reiryoku that travel at approximately twenty times the speed of sound. As you improve the sound will become quieter and you will be able to fire them off more quickly. That is all I have to teach you for now." Sasu Yona Danretsu explained.

"Thank you." the teen said as he faded.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes and glanced at the clock, it was 5:26 AM. He got up, put on his uniform, and grabbed his Zanpakuto. He walked out the door and headed over to the main building to find out what levels he had been placed into.

Upon arriving in the building he saw a few other students inside. He recognized some of them as the same students who he had seen at the field yesterday. He just walked up to the desk and was handed a sheet of paper that detailed the time and level of each of his classes.

**9:00 AM to 10:00 AM: **Kido, Gifted

**10:00 AM to 11:00 AM: **Zanjutsu, Gifted

**11:00 AM to 12:00 PM: **Hakuda, Gifted

**12:00 AM to 1:00 PM: **Lunch

**1:00 PM to 2:00 PM: **Hoho, Gifted

**2:00 PM to 3:00 PM: **Tactics, Gifted

**3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: **Hollow Studies

Rein walked over and sat down in a chair. It was not long before Ryuga came over with his own sheet. Without saying anything they traded papers.

**9:00 AM to 10:00 AM: **Hoho, Advanced

**10:00 AM to 11:00 AM: **Zanjutsu, Gifted

**11:00 AM to 12:00 PM:** Hakuda, Gifted

**12:00 AM to 1:00 PM:** Lunch

**1:00 PM to 2:00 PM:** Kido, Standard

**2:00 PM to 3:00 PM:** Hollow Studies

**3:00 PM to 4:00 PM:** Tactics, Standard

"Of course you got gifted in everything." Ryuga stated, passing the paper back to Rein and turning to Saiden, who had just walked over. Saiden held up his sheet and let Rein and Ryuga see.

**9:00 AM to 10:00 AM:** Kido, Gifted

**10:00 AM to 11:00 AM:** Zanjutsu, Gifted

**11:00 AM to 12:00 PM: **Hoho, standard

**12:00 PM to 1:00 PM: **Lunch

**1:00 PM to 2:00 PM:** Hakuda, Advanced

**2:00 PM to 3:00 PM:** Hollow Studies

**3:00 PM to 4:00 PM:** Tactics, Standard

Rein was going to say something to Saiden but Senna came over, ripped his sheet out of his hands, and threw her own at him.

**9:00 AM to 10:00 AM: **Kido, Gifted

**10:00 AM to 11:00 AM: **Zanjutsu, Gifted

**11:00 AM to 12:00 PM:** Hakuda, Gifted

**12:00 PM to 1:00 PM:** Lunch

**1:00 PM to 2:00 PM:** Hoho, Gifted

**2:00 PM to 3:00 PM: **Tactics, Advanced

**3:00 PM to 4:00 PM:** Hollow Studies

"How are they going to do the advanced and standard tactics classes at the same time in the same room?" Rein asked.

"I dunno." Senna said "Morning, by the way."

"Morning." he responded, he pulled her to him and kissed her.

Saiden and Ryuga quickly started talking to each other about food.

"Hey, idiots!" a voice said, they all turned and saw the student who had been leading the group in the field yesterday.

"I got into the gifted Zanjutsu class. Hah!" he said arrogantly.

"So did we." the four said at the same time, holding up their papers.

The student glared at Rein "You probably bribed all the teachers off or something."

"Would you like for me demonstrate my abilities?" Rein offered, getting annoyed.

"Go ahead, I can't wait to see you screw up." the student sneered.

When they reached the field the student explained how they would be proving their ability "Someone is going to throw this stack of forty plates into the air. The goal is to destroy them first with Kido, then with Hakuda, and finally with Zanjutsu. I will go first."

Saiden threw the stack into the air.

"Hado number four, Byakurai." the student said, a bolt of light pierced through every plate.

Saiden threw another stack.

The student jumped into the air and punched every one of them before they touched the ground.

Saiden threw yet another stack.

The student drew his Zanpakuto and jumped up, slashing through all of the plates.

"Let's see you do better." the student said.

Rein sighed "Let's get this over with."

The student threw a stack of plates up.

"Bakudo number nine, Horin." Rein said, the rope wrapped around each plate.

"Hado number eleven, Tsuzuri Raiden." Rein said again, a current of electricity passed through the kido rope and destroyed all the plates.

The student threw up another stack.

Rein jumped up and grabbed one plate. He landed on the ground and threw it so that it hit all of the others.

The student threw up a third stack of plates.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." Rein said calmly. He leveled the blade at the plates.

"Hyo no Danretsu." he said, firing off enough shots to destroy every plate. He then spun the blade around his finger, sealing it.

"Satisfied?" he asked, sounding bored. The student just ran off.

Everyone but Senna was shocked. "Rein, when did you get Shikai?" Ryuga asked.

"Yesterday." he replied.

Senna flinched a bit and shifted closer to Rein.

"We can talk about this later." Ryuga said, noticing Senna's reaction "Come on Saiden; let's go see if they are serving breakfast yet." Ryuga turned and Saiden followed him.

When they had left Rein took Senna's hand and pulled her off into the forest, they went to the clearing.

When they arrived Senna was unable to control herself anymore, she broke down and began crying. Rein held her.

"Relax Senna, nothing happened right?" he said, trying to calm her down a bit.

She pulled away a bit "Yeah, nothing happened, but first I thought you had died. At the time the only thing I was thinking about was you being dead. Now, looking back on it, I am also aware of what the man most likely planned to do to me. Even if nothing happened it was still the scariest thing I have ever experienced." she paused "I had a nightmare about it last night."

Rein began hoping that his shots had managed to open a few holes in the man's chest. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her.

A few minutes later Rein heard the swish of someone using Shunpo. He looked up and saw the man who had given him the test standing in the clearing.

"Rein, I need to talk to you." the man said.

"Senna, why don't you head to the cafeteria and find Saiden and Ryuga, I will be right there." Rein said.

She nodded and ran off.

"This is about me obtaining Shikai?" Rein asked.

"Yes, partly. What you accomplished is completely unprecedented; your growth rate is astounding. You have not even had a Zanpakuto for a week and you have reached Shikai." the man said.

"My Zanpakuto said that it was mostly because I skipped the process of imprinting an Asauchi with my Reiryoku." Rein explained.

"Yes, but that doesn't change anything. You formed your Zanpakuto without use of an Asauchi, that alone is unprecedented." the man paused "The main reason I am here is to give you a bit of a warning. This is going to sound like a joke but it isn't. In the event that you manage to obtain Bankai while at the Academy, I ask that you do not use it, there would be serious issues if that happened. Not only would you likely injure yourself, you would also injure anyone around you. Of course, the chances of you actually obtaining Bankai are nearly zero. I have just been asked to relay this message. Oh, and about the man that you fought yesterday. Your attacks didn't kill him, but you severed his soul chain and soul sleep. He is no longer a Shinigami and has been put in the Maggots Nest for what he attempted to do."

"Thanks for the information." Rein said.

"No problem, now I would recommend you find Senna. What do you think that Ryuga and Saiden will think if they see her come back alone, looking like she just cried her eyes out." the man suggested.

"Good idea." Rein said as he ran off.

* * *

As he reached the cafeteria he saw Senna sitting on a bench outside, he walked over and sat down.

"Hey." he said.

"Hey. What did you talk about?" she asked.

"No joke, he told me not to get Bankai yet." Rein laughed.

Senna nearly fell off of the bench from hearing that.

"So you're better now?" he asked.

She nodded

"Then let's go inside." he suggested.

She nodded again and they stood up and walked into the cafeteria.

After getting some food the pair sat down with Saiden and Ryuga. They both had worried looks on.

"So Rein, what's the special ability of your Shikai? It's been bugging me and I couldn't figure it out." Ryuga asked

"Oh, I charge up Reiryoku in the blade and release it in small quantities. It lets me fire small blasts of Reiryoku that travel extremely quickly." Rein explained.

"It seems like you can fire them extremely rapidly as well." Ryuga said.

"Kinda, my Zanpakuto spirit fires them much faster though. I can only fire off two per second or a burst of around four in a second with a delay after. My Zanpakuto spirit can fire off almost five per second consistently. The only reason I destroyed the plates was because each shot passed through and hit multiple plates." Rein elaborated.

"We need to fight again; I want to see this in person." Ryuga paused "Since it has such a potent long range ability I assume it is weaker close range?"

"In extremely close range it is very weak, but it is still a sword." Rein offered.

"When we finish eating we should have a fight." Saiden suggested.

"Sure." Rein said, completely stunned that Saiden would say something like that.

The group walked outside, Rein stood on one side of the field while Saiden and Ryuga stood on the opposite side, Senna said she would join in if it looked like someone needed help.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." Rein said.

Saiden immediately ran at him and struck. Rein kept to normal blocks for now, not wanting to go too far before they had a chance to warm up a bit. When Saiden made to do a two-handed overhead strike Rein dodged, trying to make it look like he would not be able to block it. When Saiden's sword hit the ground there was actually a small explosion of dirt and grass.

"Wow." Rein said before blocking an attack to his back from Ryuga.

Ryuga jumped away and pointed his sword at Rein "I can tell you are just playing with us, get serious!"

Rein chuckled and swung at Ryuga. When he attempted to block he nearly dropped his sword.

"When did you get that strong? Is that one of your Shikai's abilities?" Ryuga asked.

"Maybe." Rein said, smiling.

"Bakudo number four, Hainawa." Saiden said, launching the attack at Rein.

Rein jumped out of the way and charged at Saiden, starting a horizontal slash. Saiden brought his blade up and blocked the attack. Rein turned around to block an attack from Ryuga and Saiden jumped away. Ryuga attempted a two-handed diagonal slash but Rein blocked it.

"Ye lord!" Saiden said.

Rein went to turn but Ryuga slashed at him again. Rein blocked.

"Mask of blood and flesh." Saiden continued.

Ryuga got closer to Rein and attempted another diagonal slash. Rein switched to holding his blade backhand and quickly made a vertical slash that would have cut Ryuga in half had he not blocked.

"All creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!" Saiden kept speaking.

Rein launched a quick succession of alternating vertical and horizontal strikes and forced Ryuga to jump back and dodge.

"Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges." Saiden was shouting at this point.

Ryuga charged back at Rein and attempted to slash him across the face, Rein raised his blade and blocked the attack.

"March on to the south!" Saiden said.

Rein flipped his blade back to a normal hold and swung as hard as he could at Ryuga, sending him flying away. Without stopping Rein jumped into the air as high as he could.

"Hado number thirty-one, Shakkaho!" Saiden yelled. A ball of red energy formed in his hand and flew at Rein.

"Hyo no Danretsu!" Rein shouted back, a blue glow formed in his blade and he opened fire at the Kido. The blasts hit the Kido and it detonated in midair. Rein then aimed the still glowing blade at Saiden's Zanpakuto and fired, knocking it out of his hand, before Saiden's blade even touched the ground Rein had fired a second shot that knocked Ryuga's blade out of his hand.

As Rein fell he stabbed Sasu Yona Danretsu into the ground and flipped himself over, landing on his feet.

Sensing something moving in behind him Rein turned and knocked the Zanpakuto out of the hands of a stunned Senna.

"It looks like I win this time." he said.

Rein was out of breath, that fight had been a real challenge. Ryuga and Saiden looked no better though, Saiden had really pushed it with a level thirty-one Hado and Ryuga pushed himself well beyond his limit to keep Rein distracted.

"That was an awesome fight." Ryuga said, retrieving his Zanpakuto from where it had landed. Saiden did the same.

"Yeah it was." Rein said as he spun his blade around his finger and sealed it.

"I think we should start heading to class, we don't want to be late on the first day." Saiden suggested, walking off.

The rest of the group followed.

* * *

Words: 4080

AN: How did I do with the fight scenes, I am trying to make them last longer than one paragraph and I would love to hear what I am doing right/wrong/whatever.

Suggest pairings, if you don't who knows what my twisted mind will come up with!

If you notice any errors of any kind, review and tell me. Anything from spelling errors to some kind of inconsistency.

As a side note, I learned today that Microsoft word is very persistent with its autocorrect it would not stop changing:

A few minutes later Rein heard the swish of someone using Shunpo

to:

A few minutes later Rein heard the swish of someone using shampoo

Yeah…

**Some translations:**

Sasu Yona Danretsu: Lancinating Rupture

Hyo no Danretsu: Ruptured Hail.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: This took too long to post…

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach

Damaged Souls

Chapter 7: Meeting teachers

* * *

**Day:** Monday, the 21st

**Month:** August

**Year:** 1428

**Time:** 8:56 AM

**Location:** Kido classroom

Rein, Saiden, and Senna all walked into the room where the gifted Kido class would take place, there were a few students seated already. They sat down in a line in the second row and waited for the teacher to show up.

Soon a fairly tall, thin man with short white hair walked into the room. He had bright green eyes and glasses, his Zanpakuto took the form of an extremely short blade hanging at his back. He looked the class over.

"My name is Kyokan, I will be teaching you how to use Kido. We are not going to bother with theory and books, we will be actually casting the spells. Since you are all in the gifted class I assume you will be able to figure out how to cast the spells." the teacher said "Before we head out to the training field I am going to point at each of you and you will tell us the highest level Kido you have ever attempted to cast, then you will tell us the highest level that you have successfully cast."

Kyokan pointed at one of the students "The highest kido I have ever attempted was Bakudo number nine, Geki. That is also the highest I have ever successfully cast." the student said.

The teacher pointed at a few other students, nobody had tried anything higher than the first student.

When the teacher pointed at Senna she looked down at her feet "I successfully cast Hado number four, Byakurai."

Kyokan pointed at Saiden afterwards. "I successfully cast Hado number thirty-one, Shakkaho."

Finally it was Rein's turn. "I attempted to cast Hado number sixty-three, Raikoho. My highest successful spell was Hado number eleven, Tsuzuri Raiden."

The teacher laughed "How much did that Hado hurt when it failed?"

"A lot." Rein replied.

"Now we will head out to the training field and begin casting some spells." Kyokan started walking to the door; the students got up and followed him.

When they arrived at the field Kyokan had them all line up and face the targets.

"We are going to attempt to cast Hado number thirty-one, Shakkaho. Go ahead and try." the teacher said.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado number thirty-one, Shakkaho." the students said in unison.

A volley of red balls of fire flew across the field and destroyed the targets.

"Good work, now we will cast another spell. You will all attempt to cast Bakudo number thirty, Shitotsu Sansen without the incantation." the teacher instructed.

The students turned to face the targets again.

"Bakudo number thirty, Shitotsu Sansen." the students said, once again at the exact same time.

A flurry of yellow triangles flew down the field and embedded themselves into the wall.

"Excellent work." Kyokan said.

"Can we see a high level Kido?" one of the students requested. Rein looked over and saw the person who had bothered him earlier.

"I suppose so, everyone back up a bit." Kyokan said.

All the students took a few steps back.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus! In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens. Hado number seventy-three, Soren Sokatsui." he said calmly.

A massive blast of blue energy was sent flying down to the other side of the field.

Rein looked back at the teacher to see him gone.

"Bakudo number eighty-one, Danku." he recognized Kyokan's voice.

A shimmering pane of glass appeared and blocked the massive blast of blue. Rein heard a swish and the teacher reappeared near the students.

"There was no way I was going to pay for the damage that would have caused." he explained "Now you need to go to your next classes."

* * *

The group walked into the Zanjutsu room, Ryuga was already there waiting for them. Just as they sat down the teacher walked into the room.

He had short brown hair and red eyes. He was a bit taller than Rein.

"I am Surudoi, you will all learn how to use a sword." he stated "We will not be using books. Over the course of this class you will each develop your own unique fighting style. To develop it I will present you with various situations. The first situation is a one on one fight, this will develop the basis for your style. Go and find someone to fight."

Surudoi walked over to Rein "I know that you have Shikai and it would be best for you if you got used to fighting with it here. The issue is that it gives you a significant advantage over other students so I will have to ask you to go easy on whoever you end up fighting. Use an amount of power that will allow them to improve, do not completely destroy them. In order to train you we will have to do a few out of class lessons. Go and find a partner."

"Ok." Rein replied before walking over to Senna.

She drew her Zanpakuto and charged at him before he could say anything. Rein quickly drew his own blade and blocked her attack. She jumped back.

Rein held his Zanpakuto horizontally across his chest.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." he said, activating his Shikai.

She jumped at him again and slashed at his head. He swung his sword and flung her back, leveling his Zanpakuto at her.

His blade began to glow blue "Hyo no-"

A hand grabbed his arm "Please, don't fire that inside the building, you will just end up punching a bunch of holes through the walls." Rein looked over and saw the teacher standing next to him, holding his arm.

"Good point." Rein replied and he let the glow fade.

He looked back over to where he had flung Senna and saw that she was gone. Knowing her she would attack from above and behind him. He flipped to a backhand hold and swung at her without looking, he heard a loud sound and knew he had guessed correctly. He jumped after her and switched back to a normal hold, starting a one handed overhead swing. Senna jumped out of the way and ran closer to Rein, holding her blade at his neck.

She opened her mouth but then felt Rein's blade at the back of her neck.

"That is what we call a draw." Surudoi said, laughing. Rein sealed his sword and Senna sheathed hers.

The teacher called the class to the center of the room "Since we still have a good chunk of time remaining we are going to go outside and fight for a bit." he led the students out a door into a huge field with perfectly flat ground. He pointed at Rein "You and me will fight. I expect all of you to watch this."

Rein nodded and walked forward.

Surudoi drew his Zanpakuto and aimed it at the sky.

"Compress, Atsryoku." the hilt of the sword extended until it was sixty cm long, a second blade formed at the bottom of the hilt. Surudoi gripped the extended hilt with both hands.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." Rein said calmly and once again activated his Shikai.

Rein decided to play safe for a bit, he had no idea what abilities Surudoi's Shikai gave him while he knew everything about Rein's Shikai. Surudoi ran at the teen and made a stab at his chest, Rein sidestepped and attempted a stab of his own, the teacher jumped over the attack. Before he touched the ground Surudoi swung up at Rein, who swung at the incoming blade and knocked it away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the second blade heading at his arm, Surudoi had used Rein's attack to propel the lower blade around. Rein jumped back to avoid it.

"Atsryoku no Buredo." Surudoi said and he spun his weapon over his head.

Rein saw a nearly invisible wave heading at him and sidestepped. A few trees behind him were sliced in half a few seconds later. Surudoi prepared to launch another attack and Rein felt a sort of suction from his weapon. The suction stopped and Surudoi launched the attack at Rein. He barely managed to dodge it this time; he felt a gust of wind as it went by.

"You compress the air and then release it in a wave?" Rein asked.

"Yes, that is the general idea." Surudoi admitted, preparing another attack.

This time he launched two attacks along the ground with a gap in between them, Rein knew it would be some kind of trap but he had no choice but to step in between them. Before the first two attacks passed a third attack was launched down the gap. Rein gathered his Reiatsu into the blade of his sword and it began to glow. He swung his blade at the attack and felt it hit something solid, he smirked.

"In order to keep the pressure from bursting out in all directions you make a sort of container for it out of your Reiatsu. When it hits something the container breaks and the pressure is released at that point." Rein remarked "That means that if I smash it the pressure will be focused on my blade."

Rein jumped up, dragging his blade over the wall of Reiryoku, as the pressure was released it launched Rein into the air. Surudoi launched another set of attacks up at Rein. Rein leveled his blade at them.

"Hyo no Danretsu." he said, the shots fired into the masses of Reiryoku and caused them to shatter long before they reached Rein.

Rein saw Surudoi preparing to launch another attack and he quickly fired into where the pressure was gathering. The shots punctured the still forming container and all the pressure was released right next to Surudoi, kicking up a lot of dirt.

Rein touched down lightly on the ground and sealed his Zanpakuto.

"While I would love to continue this fight it is about time for you to head to your next class." Surudoi said as the dust cleared.

* * *

When they walked into the Hakuda class the teacher was already there. He was a bit shorter than Rein, he had long green hair and green eyes, and his name was Dageki. Nothing at all really happened in the class, the teacher just had them memorize charts detailing where bones and organs were.

* * *

After lunch Rein and Senna walked into the room for the Hoho class. Once again the teacher was already in the room, she was a bit taller than Senna with extremely long, light blue hair and eyes.

"My name is Hayai, the only reason each of you are in this class is because you are ready to learn Shunpo." she said, looking around the room "We are going to head outside to start learning now, I see no reason to waste time with books."

The students all followed her outside to an open area.

"The concept is simple, just focus Reiatsu into your feet and take a step, it is going to take a few tries but you will figure it out soon enough." she explained.

The first person to manage anything was a student they did not know. They took a step, then appeared two meters in front of where they were standing. They must have done something wrong though, because they appeared upside down and three meters off the ground. Hayai had stopped laughing she walked over to make sure he wasn't injured.

A few minutes later Rein managed to preform Shunpo, he appeared around twenty meters in front of where he was standing and he was _not _upside down. The rest of the class got the hang of it soon thereafter.

"Good work. The only thing left to learn with Shunpo is how to improve your abilities." she paused "Shunpo is exactly the same as taking a step, the farther you are able to step the faster you can walk. In Shunpo there are two main components, speed and endurance. Endurance is simple enough, using as little energy as possible for a step. Speed can be divided into two parts as well, first there is the distance you can make a step, then there is how long until you are able to make another step. Once again, this is the same as normal movement, when you walk you cannot instantly take another step, you need time to complete a step before starting the next one. Decreasing the time between steps is entirely dependent on your ability to time your actions correctly, the time it takes for a step to complete, however; can be improved through continuous practice."

She continued "There is more to Shunpo than just taking steps though. It is also possible to take actions while stepping, these actions need to be performed nearly instantaneously and with perfect timing, if you are off by even a second you will miss your target. This is a technique that you should not attempt just yet as you could just as easily end up stabbing yourself as your target."

"Could we see a demonstration?" one of the students asked.

Hayai sighed "Fine." she led them over an area with eight targets set into the ground in a random group.

She completely disappeared, less than a second afterwards she appeared on the other side of the group of targets. A pair of cuts in an X shape appeared on the center of each target and they fell to the ground in four pieces.

* * *

Senna and Rein walked into the tactics room and took seats near the front. Standing in the front of the room was a tall woman with bright blue hair.

After a few seconds she turned around, she wore glasses over brown eyes.

"My name is Chishiki, I know some of you are wondering why the gifted and advanced tactics class are taking place at the same time and in the same room." she took a breath "There were only two people to qualify for the gifted class and, to put things bluntly, there is no point in having a class for only two people. We decided to merge the classes and simply assign the gifted students three times more homework than the other students."

Rein looked horrified and Senna started giggling.

"That was a joke; I will simply pull the gifted students away for a few minutes each class to explain some things to them." Chishiki stated. Rein let out a breath and smirked.

"To be honest I am not sure why we even have a tactics class here, the only people who will ever have to think about strategy are the seated officers, and they can easily be taught by other officers." she sighed "Anyway, in this class I will teach you two kinds of tactics, one is the type you use in a one on one fight, the other type deals with organizing large groups of combatants."

"The general idea for tactics in any situation is to use strengths to cover weaknesses; it is a bad idea to send someone who specializes in Kido out to fight in close quarters. The most complex form of strategy is when you are up against another group that is being coordinated; in this situation you need to force them to make difficult descisions repeatedly until they either slip up or cannot salvage the situation anymore. That kind of strategy is something that you will likely never need to know. When was the last time Hollows were good at chess?" she asked sarcastically.

The rest of the class continued in the same way, she would tell them the general concept of how to deal with a particular situation and move on to the next topic.

* * *

The final class of the day for the pair was Hollow studies, upon entering the room it became apparent that the higher level courses had a comparitivly spall number of people. The room was packed and they could barely manage to find a seat.

The teacher entered the room; he was fairly short, had short brown hair, red eyes, and a face covered in various scars. "I am Teiatsu, my job is to teach you about Hollows so that you can fight them."

"Before I start to teach I need to give you the details for the trip to the real world that will be taking place in a few months. The purpose of the trip is to allow you a chance to fight a Hollow under relatively safe conditions. While you will learn quite a bit about how to fight here it is also important for you to have some experience dealing with Hollows." Teiatsu said.

"Now on to Hollows, there are two types of Hollows. The first is just a normal Hollow, nothing too special about it. The second is a Menos, these Hollows are many times stronger than an average Hollow because they are formed when Hollows merge together. Under the Menos category there are three 'ranks'. The first being the Gillian class, they are massive and for the most part look exactly the same. The second type is the Adjuchas, they are significantly smaller than the Gillians and also much stronger. The final 'rank' is the Vasto Lorde, they are around the same size as we are, there are very few of them, single digit number kind of few, and they are ridiculously strong, stronger than a captain in most cases. Other than that we know nothing about them." he paused "Besides being much stronger than ordinary Hollows Menos also possess a special ability, the Cero. It is a long range attack that takes the form of an extremely deadly beam of Reiatsu. Before firing this attack the Menos will form Reiatsu into a ball, the time it takes to charge a Cero varies but in general more powerful Menos take less time."

Of course, nearly the entire class had questions for him and by the time they had been answered class was over.

* * *

It had been three months since Rein, Senna, Ryuga, and Saiden had enrolled in the Academy. Over the course of those months they had learned quite a bit.

Ryuga was now able to fight on par with Rein in terms of pure ability, Rein still had an advantage in Kido and his Shikai. He had also made significant progress with Kido, managing to cast Shakkaho successfully on a few occasions. Saiden had also made progress in Zanjutsu. He had not gotten much faster but when he did hit he did damage that one would normally associate with a boulder being dropped from fifty meters in the air. His progress in Kido was amazing, he has managed to cast Hado number fifty-four without the incantation. Senna progressed quite a bit in Hoho and was beginning to mix it into her fighting.

Rein had not bothered much with Kido, instead focusing on Hoho and Zanjutsu. He began working on firing his Shikai while using Shunpo with limited success. His progress in tactics was exceptional.

* * *

**Day: **Tuesday, the 28th

**Month:** November

**Year: **1428

**Time: **8:00 AM

**Location: **Cafeteria

Rein sat down at the table and began to eat breakfast, today was the day of the trip to the living world. Since the trip didn't start until 10:00 AM the majority of the students were still asleep.

After he had finished his food he headed over to the field and sat down, entering a partial Jinzen. There really was no need to go to his inner world because he only needed to talk to Sasu Yona Danretsu.

"Hey, do you think I will be able to fight a Hollow?" Rein asked.

"Unless you are unfortunate enough to run into a Menos I doubt you will have any trouble. My only suggestion is that you keep your distance from the Hollows and use Hyo no Danretsu to hit them. As long as you can see the target you will have no trouble hitting it." the spirit paused "That said I doubt you will need to use your Shikai in the first place, stronger Hollows rarely leave Hueco Mundo."

"That is a bit reassuring." he replied.

"Do not get overconfident, while they are likely to be weak they can have some rather nasty abilities." the spirit cautioned.

Before Rein could reply a yell snapped him out of the trance, looking up he saw Ryuga standing in front of him.

"Morning." Rein stated.

"Morning. You're up rather early." he commented.

Rein stood up and shrugged "Where is everyone else?"

"Still sleeping. In a half hour we are all supposed to meet up so the teachers can explain what we should do. You up for a fight?" Ryuga asked.

"Normally I would say yes but it would be bad for us to tire out now and risk slipping up later." Rein answered, looking a bit apologetic.

"Good point, but how am I supposed to keep myself entertained for the next half an hour?" he said.

"We could play chess." Rein suggested, smirking.

"Never again, I will never play that game again." he replied quickly "Besides; it can't be that fun to completely mop the floor with me."

"You would be surprised." Rein muttered.

Ryuga glared at him, not looking at all amused.

At this point Saiden walked over to them.

"Morning." he said shortly.

"Morning." both Rein and Ryuga replied.

"Would you be interested in playing a game of chess against me?" Rein asked hopefully.

"No thanks." Saiden answered, seeing Ryuga standing behind Rein making odd gestures that vaguely suggested he should decline the offer.

Rein aimed a kick behind him, barely missing Ryuga.

"You missed." Ryuga gloated. Rein Shunpoed behind him and delivered a blow to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. Ryuga stood up slowly, muttering something about Shunpo being unfair.

Before he managed to stand up fully something knocked his feet out from under him and he fell over again. Looking up he saw Senna standing over him, barely managing to keep a straight face. Ryuga stood up again and quickly backed away, rapidly glancing between Rein and Senna as though he was expecting to be hit again.

"Morning." Senna said, walking over to stand next to Rein as if nothing had happened.

"Morning." he replied.

"No I will not play chess with you, at least not this early in the morning." she said before he could ask.

He looked down at his feet in disappointment, Senna rolled her eyes.

Having nothing better to do the group headed over to where they were supposed to meet in preparation for the trip.

* * *

They arrived at the same time as most of the other students. There were around forty assembled in front of the gate.

Kyokan stepped forward and began to speak "In a few minutes all of us will step through this gate and into the real world. The location we have selected for our arrival will be a large field surrounded by trees, there will be no humans there. Once all of us have finished passing through the gate we will use some bait to attract Hollows, your job is to kill every one of them. There is a small chance that something may go wrong, we may end up attracting more Hollows than you can handle. If that happens you should all form a large group and fight defensively, we will take care of the issue." a pause "Are there any questions?"

Nobody spoke up "Then follow me through the gate."

The gate opened and the group stepped through.

* * *

Words: 3970

AN: Sorry this took so freaking long to post, I had to re-write this around five times because I kept creating plot holes. From now on I will update at least once per week.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: …

Disclaimer: I only own the boring kind of bleach…

Damaged Souls

Chapter 8: The Beginning

* * *

**Day: **Tuesday, the 28th

**Month:** November

**Year: **1428

**Time:** 10:02 AM

**Location: **Real world

Rein stepped out of the gate along with a large group of students; they had come to the real world in order to gain experience fighting Hollows. They did not have to wait long, before the last student had finished coming out of the gate there was a loud roar from behind them.

Without hesitation Ryuga moved behind the Hollow and sliced it in half. Not long afterwards more Hollows began to appear, the students quickly went to work.

"I hear Shinigami taste better than an average soul; would you be willing to help me test that?" Rein turned and saw a fairly large Hollow behind him.

"Shut up." he replied, drawing his Zanpakuto and quickly slashing it diagonally across the face.

Rein looked around and saw that Hollows were beginning to appear in much larger numbers, most of the other students were engaged in fights against three opponents. As he moved to assist them a few Hollows blocked his path, luckily, these did not seem to be as talkative as the first Hollow he had encountered and attacked him without warning.

He was immediately forced onto the defensive, dodging attacks from all directions. He used Shunpo to create distance between him and the Hollows.

"Bite, Sasu Yona Danretsu." He said as his opponents ran at him.

Rein took the blade and threw it at the oncoming group; it embedded itself into one of the Hollows masks. He dispatched another one with a series of quick kicks before retrieving his sword and slicing through the remaining Hollows.

The teen returned his attention to the main fight, half of the students seemed to be heavily wounded and the rest did not look much better.

'Where did all the teachers run off to?' he thought, annoyed. He felt a tingling on the back of his neck and quickly jumped away, just in time to avoid the massive red beam that passed through where he had just been. It seemed that the teachers were fighting a Menos that had decided to show up.

Rein ran back to where the majority of the students were fighting and began to help them out. He lost count of how many Hollows he had killed and more kept on appearing. Looking back at where the teachers had been fighting the Menos he saw another Hollow appear. It was significantly larger than most of the other Hollows and its mask was shaped like a knight's helm. One hand was normal with the exception of a long claw at the end of each finger, the Hollow's other arm was entirely replaced with a massive curved blade that appeared to be made from bone. Its skin was covered by rough, light grey spikes that were best compared with scales. Judging by how much Reiatsu it possessed it was an Adjuchas.

The new Hollow made short work of the teachers and moved to attack the students; Rein blocked its path and made a slash at one of its arms. The Hollow dodged and raked Rein across the back with its clawed hand. He fell to the ground, motionless.

"Why is everyone here so pathetically weak?" the Hollow asked, laughing as he began to attack the other students.

Rein could only watch as his classmates were cut down one by one. By this time Ryuga, Senna, and Saiden had managed to finish off the remaining Hollows and closed in on the Adjuchas. Ryuga and Senna began to slash at the Hollow but it had little effect.

"I am beginning to get bored." the Hollow said, swatting both of them away with its large arm. The entire time Saiden was standing behind it gathering Reiatsu into his Zanpakuto.

Without warning Saiden charged at the Hollow and made a horizontal slash across the Hollow's back, sending it flying a few meters away, as it was about to impact the ground Ryuga and Senna charged at it from opposite sides and attempted to impale it. Before their blades could make contact the Hollow vanished with a loud bang.

The Hollow reappeared in the air above them, red energy forming into a ball in its clawed hand. A few moments later it released the Cero, the massive beam engulfed Ryuga, Saiden, and Senna.

It laughed uncontrollably and began to charge another Cero.

Rein struggled to stand up, his hands were soaked in his blood and he could feel the cuts on his back tearing with his effort. Before he could lift himself any further he felt an intense pain across his entire face. It felt as though someone had fired off Shakkaho inside his head. As the pain began to subside Rein noticed his vision sharpening and his Reiatsu increasing. He quickly stood up and picked up his Zanpakuto. Without hesitating he charged energy into it and leveled it at the Hollow.

"Hyo no Danretsu." Rein fired the shot at the rapidly expanding sphere of energy. The impact caused the Cero to explode and created a large cloud of smoke.

Rein continued to fire at the Hollow, punching holes into the smoke until it dissipated.

"It feels like someone is throwing rocks at me." the Hollow said, completely unaffected by the shots, it turned and faced Rein.

As it turned a burst of shots tore through the eyeholes in its mask, causing the Hollow to roar in pain.

"That really hurt, I am going to completely incinerate you now." the Adjuchas stated and it began to charge another Cero.

Just as the blast was released Rein Shunpoed out of the way and continued firing. He increased the distance between him and the Hollow to the point that it was barely visible, even with Rein's enhanced vision. He continued to Shunpo around the Hollow while pelting it with a hail of shots. As he continued to fire Rein noticed that he had more control over the properties of the shots. He was beginning to fire less rapidly but the shots were having a much more noticeable effect on the Hollow, chipping off parts of its skin and mask.

There was a loud bang and the Hollow vanished again, appearing directly behind the teen, swinging its large arm down at his head. Rein intercepted the attack with one of his own and stabbed at the Hollow's mask. The Hollow grabbed his blade with its clawed hand and attempted to kick Rein, who twisted out of the way of the attack and tore his blade out of the Hollows grip, severing one of its fingers.

Rein felt another abrupt pain in his head and nearly blacked out. The pain was gone before he could react to it, as he began to move again he noticed that his head had an odd weight to it, it was not enough to slow him down so he ignored it.

He regained focus just in time to intercept yet another attack from the Hollow. When his Zanpakuto made contact with the bone like substance it kept moving until the appendage was completely severed. When he saw the Hollow clutching its missing arm in pain Rein felt a surge of pure rage come over him. He could not accept that this creature had the right to be upset about its own pain after it had done the same to others.

Rein raised his Zanpakuto to the Hollow's throat and gathered as much Reiatsu as he could, causing the blade to emit a violent blue glow. His vision became sharper and he could see every scratch on its mask in perfect detail; he was almost able to see the event that caused each of the marks. The more he examined the mask the more hatred he felt for the being.

The teen applied more force to his blade and pushed the Hollow to the ground, pinning it to the dirt. The glow kept becoming brighter until the Hollow tried to look away. He just pushed harder with his sword, forcing the Hollow to look through the glow at his face. Seeing the obvious discomfort the teen smirked, a feeling of inexplicable joy coming over him.

"Juden-sa Hyo no Danretsu." the teen said calmly. All of the Reiatsu that had been focused into the blade burst out into the Hollow's neck. As the attack tore through the Hollow's neck the excess Reiatsu formed into a series of four black rings with a dark blue outline, they quickly expanded away from the blade along with a large shockwave.

The Hollow dissolved into black particles and faded. Rein lifted his blade out of the ground and felt all his emotions drain away. His vision returned to normal and the weight on his face disappeared.

Rein didn't know how much time had passed, he didn't notice the light beginning to fade as the sun set. He heard a sort of sliding noise behind him and turned around, a gate had appeared. In the gate stood a figure wearing a grey cloak, their face was obscured by a hood.

"I would recommend coming with me, you will not want to be here when the Shinigami arrive." the figure suggested.

Rein nodded and followed him through the gate.

* * *

Rein walked out of the gate and looked around. He saw a massive enclosed space; it was large enough that he could not see the other side of the space from where he was standing.

"It looks like you noticed how large this place is." the person said from beside him "The roof is approximately four kilometers above us. It is shaped like a cylinder with a radius of eight kilometers. We are underground, about twelve kilometers below Seireitei."

"Who are you?" Rein asked simply.

"This area is the home of an organization, think of it as a sort of opposite of Seireitei. We have the same purpose as the rest of the Shinigami but we take a more offensive stance; instead of simply killing Hollows where they appear we actively hunt them down, usually in Hueco Mundo." the person paused "Our existence is completely hidden from everyone outside the royal dimension, we keep a few people with the Shinigami in order to know what is going on."

"Now, as for who I am." the person let the hood fall off his head and smirked.

"Kyokan?" Rein asked, stunned.

Kyokan continued smirking "It's me, yes. Now I would like to get to the poin-"

"Why? If you are alive then you could have done something, they didn't have to die." Rein questioned calmly.

Kyokan dropped his smirk and responded "I wish I could have done something but I was otherwise occupied, there was a Vasto Lorde there and I was barely able to hold it off. It left as soon as you killed the Adjuchas, I needed to come back here to make some arrangements. What happened was not normal; the Hollows displayed an abnormal level of organization in their attack. This tends to happen whenever a particularly strong Hollow turns up. The difference is that they went on the offensive, in the past they focused on simply keeping us away from them. I am not sure what this means but it would be best if we started building up some serious strength. To this end I would like to extend in invitation for you to join us."

"I accept the offer, I don't have much of a choice anyway." Rein answered.

"I suppose you didn't. Anyway, let's get something other than the academy uniform to wear; generally we like to keep information about ourselves hidden from people who may see us, wearing that essentially advertises where you are from." Kyokan said "I will answer any questions you may have as we walk."

Rein asked his first question "Is there a command structure of some kind here?"

"Barely, we have a leader but other than that there is none. If people are sent out on a mission in a group one person is assigned to lead based on who would be best. The leader makes it his job to understand the abilities of every person here and uses that information to decide who will go on what missions." Kyokan explained.

"What sorts of people are here?" the teen asked.

"Pretty much anyone who can fight Hollows; Quincies, humans, there are even a few Arrancar. There aren't too many Shinigami here though; most of them are in the Gotei Thirteen." Kyokan answered.

A few minutes later Rein had found a uniform. It consisted of a long black coat rather similar to what his Zanpakuto spirit wore, but without the armored parts. Under the coat he wore lose fitting black pants.

"What do I do now?" Rein asked.

"Tomorrow we are going to send you on a mission to judge your abilities. For now I suppose I should show you to a room." he responded.

Kyokan led Rein to a building fairly close to the center of the area. They entered the building and walked down a few hallways before Kyokan opened a door.

"Here is your room." he said before walking away.

The room was empty with the exception of a bed placed in the corner. Rein walked over to the bed and went to sleep.

* * *

Rein opened his eyes and got out of the bed, he put on his uniform and went to attach his Zanpakuto to his back.

It was gone.

The teen frantically looked around the room until he noticed a dark shape lying on the bed. He walked over and picked it up, it was his Zanpakuto, still in its Shikai.

Rein frowned and sealed the blade. Nothing happened; he tried a few more times with no success. The teen eventually gave up and sat down on the bed, entering Jinzen.

* * *

Rein looked around his inner world and saw his Zanpakuto spirit standing far off in the distance; he walked over.

"Hey. Do you have any idea why I am unable to seal you?" the teen asked as he approached the spirit.

"Your Reiatsu is too unstable to seal at the moment. Your emotions are far too intense for you to control your Reiatsu; and even if they were not the incident yesterday was well beyond your limits and you still have not recovered from the side effects." Sasu Yona Danretsu explained.

"What do you mean by side effects?" Rein questioned, beginning to get worried.

"Your body was unable to handle the strain from the quantity of Reiatsu you were releasing. You are lucky that it did not last too long, if it had lasted any longer your bones would have started to break." the spirit responded.

"So will there be consequences if it happens again?" the teen said.

"Yes, though they will not be too terrible due to the tolerance your body began to develop." the spirit replied.

"Got it. I guess I should go back now." the teen stated before fading.

* * *

Rein got up and retrieved his blade. As he attempted to place it along his back he realized there was an issue: the blade kept scraping across the floor.

The teen was standing there scratching his head when he heard a knock on the door. Admitting defeat he simply held his Zanpakuto in his hand and opened the door, it was Kyokan.

"Let's get you something to eat and then we will discuss the mission." he offered, Rein nodded and followed him.

After eating Kyokan led him to the central area, there were a few other people present. Kyokan walked out to the front of the group.

"For the duration of this mission you will all be divided into groups of three, you are to enter Hueco Mundo and hunt down Hollows. There are no specific targets, we just want to make our presence known and see what we can stir up." Kyokan instructed.

The group began to break up into smaller groups. Rein looked around, trying to find some people to pair up with.

Rein saw two people standing off to the side. The first person looked to be about Rein's height, he had bright green eyes and messy black hair that reached down to the middle of his back. He had a knife strapped to each of his wrists and he had a bored expression on his face. Next to him stood a girl with light green hair that reached a bit past her waist and yellow eyes. There was a straight bladed sword, no longer than an average Zanpakuto, hanging at her left.

"Mind if I join you?" the teen asked after he walked over to them.

"Sure." the girl answered, the boy simply inclined his head and shrugged.

They heard someone clearing their throat and returned their attention to Kyokan.

"Ok, head out." he ordered.

Rein turned back to his group and noticed that the boy's hand was emitting black flames. The boy raised his hand and drew a horizontal line in the air, leaving a line of black energy about a meter wide. At the edges of the line the energy dripped down to the ground, forming a rectangle. The boy then lifted his hand, still emiting black flames, and tapped the center of the rectangle. The space inside the rectangle shattered like glass, behind it was a formless mass of grey and black.

The girl walked into the rectangle, motioning for Rein to follow. He stepped through and immediately noticed a disturbing lack of anything solid beneath his feet and began to fall headfirst. After a few seconds of falling his head impacted something solid, looking down he saw a flat, light green surface extending a few meters in front of him. The girl was standing at the edge of the surface, walking away; as she walked more of the surface formed in front of her.

As the teen stood up he noticed that the boy had landed behind him. Rein began following the girl, who had now started running. After a few minutes the group walked through a replica of the rectangle that they had entered through.

* * *

They landed in a massive desert dotted with small grey trees. The landscape was uncomfortably similar to Rein's inner world, the only differences being the lack of rain, grey sand, and a much more distant moon.

Before he had a chance to ask any questions a loud chorus of roars echoed across the sand, signaling the presence of Hollows. Rein gripped his Zanpakuto tighter, the girl drew her blade, and the boy drew his knives from the sheathes on his wrists. He immediately began running in the direction that the roars had come from, the girl and Rein not too far behind.

They had been running for several minutes when the boy held up his hand.

"Something is wrong, we should be able to see them by now." he said, slowly looking around.

Not long after a ring of explosions appeared in the sand and Hollows began to pull themselves out. Rein immediately used Shunpo to get out of the ring and found himself a good five times further away than he intended. He experimentally probed the air around him and found a large concentration of Reishi in the air; he nodded in understanding, the large concentration would make it much easier to move than he was used to. He readjusted and tried again, he was only off by about half a meter.

Glancing back at the fight the teen saw the rest of his group making short work of the Hollows. As he ran he raised his Zanpakuto and fired at the Hollows, killing two of them; without stopping he made a wide horizontal slash, bisecting the masks of three more Hollows.

Just as Rein slashed through the mask of the final Hollow another, significantly larger, group found them.

"Well I suppose we should be happy none of them are lecturing us about how weak we are." the girl commented.

Rein smirked and nodded before firing a shot through a nearby Hollow. He used Shunpo to get behind another and stabbed it through the back of the neck before using Shunpo once again to appear about one-hundred meters above the swarm of Hollows; he began firing off shots as quickly as he could and before long he had decimated the group.

When he touched down on the ground he looked around to see if either of his teammates needed any help. The boy was moving fast enough that Rein was unable to make out anything other than a blur and the Hollows that he was fighting were disappearing rather quickly. The girl also seemed to be holding her own, easily cutting down every Hollow in the general area. Rein settled for sitting back and firing at random Hollows.

The fight had been going on for a few hours and Hollows were still showing up. Despite this none of the group seemed tired, only very annoyed.

"Forget this!" Rein shouted, getting more annoyed with each passing second. He began focusing as much Reiatsu into his blade as he could, creating an extremely bright glow.

He jumped into the air, his blade leaving a blue trail of overflowing energy behind. At the peak of his jump he focused more Reiatsu into his blade until he was unable to contain it.

"Juden-sa Hyo no Danretsu." he said instinctively as he released all of the stored energy from his blade. The energy compressed down to the size of one of his standard shots but many times brighter. The shot launched out of Rein's blade and flew straight down, embedding itself in the mask of an unfortunate Hollow. The shot passed straight through the Hollow and impacted the ground; a ring of energy formed around the point of impact and began to expand rapidly, slicing through anything it came into contact with.

Rein touched down on the ground, out of breath.

"A bit of warning would have been nice." the girl said dryly, indicating a gash on the back of her coat.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking." he replied.

"At least you took care of the Hollows. I have a feeling that the explosion will discourage any Hollows that were going to come over here." she replied.

The boy walked up next to them "Interesting ability, instead of simply letting the energy explode out in all directions you focus it into a ring. It makes the attack much more dangerous."

"Isn't that a bit too powerful?" the girl asked, looking a bit bothered.

"No, look at him, he is about to pass out; that attack used up nearly all of his Reiatsu. Besides, you have no right to talk considering the ability of your Shikai." the boy responded.

"You are just jelous that we get special abilities from ours, yours is boring." the girl countered.

The boy shook his head "Come on, let's head back." he raised his hand and created another rectangle, leading the group through it.

* * *

Words: 3820

AN: Interesting things happened… Not much to say here.


End file.
